The Hebrew Prophets

"Come to Beit-El, and commit crimes; to Gilgal, and commit more crimes! Bring your sacrifices in the morning and your tithes after three days;

burn leavened bread as a thank offering; brag in public about your voluntary offerings; because that's what you love to do, Isra'el!" says Adonai ELOHIM.

"I made your teeth clean of food in all your cities, left you nothing to eat in all your villages; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

"I withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest. I made it rain on one city and not on another - one field had rain, while another with no rain dried up;

from two or three cities they would stagger to one city for water to drink, but there wasn't enough; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

"I struck your crops with hot winds and blight, your many gardens and vineyards; the cutter-worms devoured your fig and olive trees; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

"I sent a plague on you like that of Egypt, put your young men to death with the sword; let your horses be captured; and filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

"I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew S'dom and 'Amora; you were like a burning stick snatched from the fire; still you haven't returned to me," says ADONAI.

"This is why I will deal with you in this way, Isra'el; and because I will deal with you in this way, prepare to meet your God, Isra'el

him who forms mountains and creates wind, who declares to humankind his thoughts, who turns the morning to darkness and strides on the heights of the earth - Adonai ELOHEI-Tzva'ot is his name."

Hear this word that I take up against you in lament, house of Isra'el:

The virgin of Isra'el has fallen; she will not rise again. She lies abandoned on her own soil with no one to lift her up.

For thus says Adonai ELOHIM: "The city from which a thousand marched will be left with a hundred, and the one from which a hundred marched will be left with ten from the house of Isra'el."

For here is what ADONAI says to the house of Isra'el: "If you seek me, you will survive;

but don't seek Beit-El, or enter Gilgal or pass on into Be'er-Sheva; for Gilgal will certainly go into exile, and Beit-El will come to nothing."

If you seek ADONAI, you will survive. Otherwise, he will break out against the house of Yosef like fire, devouring Beit-El, with no one to quench the flames.

You who turn justice to bitter wormwood and throw righteousness to the ground!

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who brings deathlike shadows over the morning, who darkens the day into night, who calls for the water in the sea and with it floods the earth - ADONAI is his name

he flashes destruction on the strong, so that destruction overcomes the fortress.

They hate anyone promoting justice at the city gate, they detest anyone who speaks the truth.

Therefore, because you trample on the poor and extort from them levies of grain; although you have built houses of cut stone, you will not live in them; and though you have planted pleasant vineyards, you will not drink their wine.

For I know how numerous are your crimes and how outrageous your sins - bullying the innocent, extorting ransoms pushing the poor aside at the gate.

At times like these a prudent person stays silent, for it is an evil time.

Seek good and not evil, so that you will survive. Then Adonai ELOHEI-Tzva'ot will be with you, as you say he is.

Hate evil, love good, and uphold justice at the gate. Maybe Adonai ELOHEI-Tzva'ot will take pity on the survivors of Yosef.