A Lament Over Fallen Israel
A funeral song is sung over a nation still standing. The way out is repeated: seek me and live, seek good, establish justice in the gate. Their festivals and songs our Father refuses to hear; what he wants is justice rolling down like water.
5 1Hear this word that I raise as a lament over you, house of Israel: 2Fallen, never to rise again, is the virgin Israel; she lies abandoned on her own land, with no one to raise her up.
3For the Sovereign Father says: The city that marches out 1,000 will have one hundred left; the one marching out one hundred will have ten left—for the house of Israel.
4For this is what our Father says to the house of Israel: Seek me and live. 5But do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing. a a v5 Gilgal's very name sounds like "rolled away into exile" — the shrine the people trusted in becomes the word for their own captivity.
6Seek our Father and live, or he will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour, with no one to quench it for Bethel. 7You who turn justice into bitter poison and throw righteousness to the ground. 8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns deep darkness into morning and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth—our Father is his name. 9He flashes destruction on the strong, and ruin comes upon the fortress. 10They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they despise the one who speaks the truth. b b v10 The 'gate' was the city entrance where legal cases were heard and justice was administered — the ancient equivalent of a courthouse. 11Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you have built houses of cut stone, but you will not live in them; you have planted lovely vineyards, but you will not drink their wine. 12For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins—you who afflict the righteous and take bribes and push aside the needy in the gate. 13Therefore the prudent keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. 14Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Father of heaven's armies will be with you, just as you have claimed. 15Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; perhaps the Father of heaven's armies will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
16So the Father of heaven's armies says: In every square, wailing; in every street, they cry, "Alas! Alas!" They call the farmer to mourning, and those skilled in lament to wailing. 17In all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through your midst, says our Father.
The Day of Our Father Is Darkness
18Woe to you who long for the day of our Father! Why would you want the day of our Father? It is darkness, not light. 19It will be as if a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, or went into his house and rested his hand on the wall only to be bitten by a snake. 20Will not the day of our Father be darkness, not light—pitch-dark, with no brightness in it?
21I hate, I despise your festivals; I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22Even if you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals I will not even look at. 23Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the music of your harps. 24But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 25Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings those forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel? 26You have lifted up Sikkuth your king and Kiyyun your star-god, the images you made for yourselves. c c v26 Sikkuth and Kiyyun were Assyrian and Babylonian star-gods; the people had been secretly carrying these idols even while claiming to worship the true God. 27So I will send you into exile beyond Damascus, says our Father—the Father of heaven's armies is his name.
