5 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a kinah (lamentation), O Bais Yisroel.

² The Betulat Yisroel is fallen; she shall no more rise; she is forsaken in her own land; there is none to raise her up.

³ For thus saith Adonoi Hashem: The city that went out by a thousand will be left a hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred will be left ten, for Bais Yisroel.

⁴ For thus saith Hashem unto Bais Yisroel: Seek ye Me, and live;

⁵ But seek not Beit-El, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer Sheva; for Gilgal shall surely go into golus, and Beit-El shall come to naught.

⁶ Seek Hashem, and live; lest He break out like eish in Bais Yosef, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beit-El.

⁷ Ye who turn mishpat into wormwood, and cast tzedakah to the ground,

⁸ Seek Him that maketh the Pleiades and Orion, and turneth tzalmavet into boker, and maketh the yom into lailah; that calleth for the waters of the yam, and poureth them out upon the face of ha’aretz; Hashem Shmo;

⁹ Who causeth shod (destruction) to flash upon the strong, and shod upon the fortified city.

¹⁰ They hate the mochiach (reprover [of injustice]) in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh tamim (uprightly).

¹¹ Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat; ye have built batim (houses) of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant kramim (vineyards), but ye shall not drink yayin of them.

¹² For I have da’as of your manifold peysha’im and your mighty chattaim (sins); they afflict the tzaddik, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the sha’ar (gate, court) from their right.

¹³ Therefore the maskil (prudent) shall keep silence in such times; for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek tov, and not rah, that ye may live; and so Hashem Elohei Tzva’os shall be with you, just as ye say He is.

¹⁵ Hate the rah, and love the tov, and establish mishpat in the sha’ar; it may be that Hashem Elohei Tzava’os will be gracious unto the she’erit Yosef.

¹⁶ Therefore Hashem Adonoi Elohei Tzva’os saith thus: Wailing shall be in all rechovot; and they shall cry in all the public squares, Alas! Alas! And they shall call the ikkar (farmer) to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.

¹⁷ And in all kramim (vineyards) shall be wailing; for I will pass through thee, saith Hashem.

¹⁸ Hoy unto you that desire the Yom Hashem! Why do ye seek it? The Yom Hashem is choshech, and not ohr.

¹⁹ As if a man did flee from an ari, and a dov met him; or went into the bais, and leaned his hand on the kir (wall), and a nachash bit him.

²⁰ Shall not the Yom Hashem be choshech, and not ohr? Even very dark, and no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate, I despise your chagim (religious festivals), and I will not stand in your atzerot (solemn assemblies).

²² Though ye offer Me olot and your minchot, I will not accept them; neither will I regard your choice shelamim (peace offerings).

²³ Take thou away from Me the noise of thy shirim (songs); for I will not hear the melody of thy nevalim (harps).

²⁴ But let mishpat run down as mayim, and tzedakah as a never failing stream.

²⁵ Did ye offer unto Me zevakhim and minchah in the midbar arba’im shanah, O Bais Yisroel?

²⁶ But ye have borne the shrine of your Moloch and the pedestal of your tzelamim, your star g-d, which ye made for yourselves.

²⁷ Therefore will I cause you to go into golus beyond Damascus, saith Hashem Elohei Tzva’os Shmo.