5Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing.H8085H1697H5375H7015H1004H34782“The virgin Israel has fallen, never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, with no one to help her up.”H1330H3478H5307H3254H6965H5203H127H69653The Sovereign Lord says. “When a city sends a thousand men to battle, only a hundred will return. When a town sends a hundred, only ten will come back alive.”H559H136H3069H5892H3318H505H7604H3967H3318H3967H7604H6235H1004H34784Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel. “Come back to me and live!H559H3068H1004H3478H1875H24215Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel; don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba. For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile, and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”H1875H1008H935H1537H5674H884H1537H1540H1540H1008H2056Come back to the Lord and live! Otherwise, he will roar through Israel like a fire, devouring you completely. Your gods in Bethel won’t be able to quench the flames.H1875H3068H2421H6743H784H1004H3130H398H3518H10087You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed. You treat the righteous like dirt.H2015H4941H3939H3240H6666H7768It is the Lord who created the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The Lord is his name!H6213H3598H3685H2015H6757H1242H3117H2821H3915H7121H4325H3220H8210H6440H776H3068H80349With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong, crushing all their defenses.H1082H7701H5794H7701H935H401310How you hate honest judges! How you despise people who tell the truth!H8130H3198H8179H8581H1696H854911You trample the poor, stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent. Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses, you will never live in them. Though you plant lush vineyards, you will never drink wine from them.H3282H1318H1800H3947H4864H1250H1129H1004H1496H3427H5193H2531H3754H8354H319612For I know the vast number of your sins and the depth of your rebellions. You oppress good people by taking bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.H3045H7227H6588H6099H2403H6887H6662H3947H3724H5186H34H817913So those who are smart keep their mouths shut, for it is an evil time.H7919H1826H6256H7451H625614Do what is good and run from evil so that you may live! Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper, just as you have claimed.H1875H2896H7451H2421H3068H430H6635H55915Hate evil and love what is good; turn your courts into true halls of justice. Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will have mercy on the remnant of his people.H8130H7451H157H2896H3322H4941H8179H3068H430H6635H2603H7611H313016Therefore, this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says. “There will be crying in all the public squares and mourning in every street. Call for the farmers to weep with you, and summon professional mourners to wail.H3068H430H6635H136H559H4553H7339H559H2351H1930H1930H7121H406H60H3045H5092H455317There will be wailing in every vineyard, for I will destroy them all,” says the Lord.H3754H4553H5674H7130H559H3068
Warning of Coming Judgment
18What sorrow awaits you who say, “If only the day of the Lord were here!” You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light.H1945H183H3117H3068H4100H3117H3068H2822H21619In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—only to meet a bear. Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—and he’s bitten by a snake.H376H5127H6440H738H1677H6293H935H1004H5564H3027H7023H5175H539120Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope.H3117H3068H2822H216H651H505121“I hate all your show and pretense—the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.H8130H3988H2282H7306H611622I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.H5927H5930H4503H7521H5027H8002H480623Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps.H5493H1995H7892H8085H2172H503524Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.H4941H1556H4325H6666H386H515825“Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel?H5066H2077H4503H4057H705H8141H1004H347826No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves.H5375H5522H4428H3594H6754H3556H430H621327So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies.H1540H1973H1834H559H3068H8034H430H6635
Des Moines, IA
like a fire, devouring you completely. Your gods in Bethel won’t be able to quench the flames.H1875
