The Hebrew Prophets

Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord, says: “There will be wailing in all the public squares and cries of ‘Alas! Alas!’ in all the streets. The farmer will be summoned to mourn, and the mourners to wail.

There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD.

Woe to you who long for the Day of the LORD! What will the Day of the LORD be for you? It will be darkness and not light.

It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake.

Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?

“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.

Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.

Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.

Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes.

Cross over to Calneh and see; go from there to the great Hamath; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?

You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence.

You lie on beds inlaid with ivory, and lounge upon your couches. You dine on lambs from the flock and calves from the stall.

You improvise songs on the harp like David and invent your own musical instruments.

You drink wine by the bowlful and anoint yourselves with the finest oils, but you fail to grieve over the ruin of Joseph.

Therefore, you will now go into exile as the first of the captives, and your feasting and lounging will come to an end.

The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself—the LORD, the God of Hosts, has declared: “I abhor Jacob’s pride and detest his citadels, so I will deliver up the city and everything in it.”

And if there are ten men left in one house, they too will die.

And when the relative who is to burn the bodies picks them up to remove them from the house, he will call to one inside, “Is anyone else with you?” “None,” that person will answer. “Silence,” the relative will retort, “for the name of the LORD must not be invoked.”

For the LORD gives a command: “The great house will be smashed to pieces, and the small house to rubble.”

“Do horses gallop on the cliffs? Does one plow the sea with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—

you who rejoice in Lo-debar and say, ‘Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?’