A lamentation for Israel: an exhortation to return to God.

¹ Listen to this word, which I lift over you in lamentation. The house of Israel has fallen, and it will no longer rise again.

² The virgin of Israel has been thrown onto her land, there is no one who can raise her up.

³ For thus says the Lord God: In the city from which a thousand departed, a hundred will remain, and in that from which a hundred departed, ten will remain, in the house of Israel.

⁴ For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me and you will live.

⁵ But do not be willing to seek Bethel, and do not be willing to enter Gilgal, and you will not cross into Beer-sheba. For Gilgal will be led into captivity, and Bethel will be useless.¹

1. 5:5Bethel,--Galgal,--Bersabee: The places where they worshipped their idols.(Challoner)

⁶ Seek the Lord and live. Otherwise, the house of Joseph may be destroyed with fire, and it will devour, and there will be no one who can extinguish Bethel.

⁷ You turn judgment into wormwood, and you abandon justice on earth.

⁸ The Maker of Arcturus and Orion, who turns darkness into daybreak and who changes day into night; who calls forth the waters of the sea and who pours them out over the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.¹

1. 5:8Arcturus and Orion: Arcturus is a bright star in the north: Orion a beautiful constellation in the south.(Challoner)

⁹ It is he who smiles destruction on the healthy, and who brings pillaging upon the powerful.¹

1. 5:9With a smile: That is, with all ease, and without making any effort.(Challoner)

¹⁰ They held hatred for the one who corrects at the gate, and they have abhorred the one who speaks perfectly.

¹¹ Therefore, on his behalf, because you have torn apart the poor and stolen choice prey from him: you will build houses with square stones and you will not dwell in them; you will plant the most delightful vineyards, and you will not drink wine from them.¹

1. 5:11The pronoun ‘eo’ appears twice in this verse. Each time it refers to the same person. It could be interpreted to refer to God. So, they have torn apart the poor and they have stolen choice prey from God. The poor are the choice prize valued by God. The prior verse also refers to God, making this interpretation likely. On the other hand, the ‘pro eo’ could also refer to the poor, on whose behalf God punishes those who act unjustly.(Conte)

¹² For I know your many wicked deeds and the strength of your sins, you enemies of the just, accepting bribes, and depriving the poor at the gate.

¹³ Therefore, the prudent will be silent at that time, for it is an evil time.

¹⁴ Seek good and not evil, so that you may live. And the Lord God of hosts will be with you, just as you have asked.

¹⁵ Hate evil and love good, and establish judgment at the gate. Perhaps then the Lord God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.¹

1. 5:15The expression ‘the Lord God of hosts’ could also be rendered ‘the Lord God of armies,’ that is, of armies that destroy those who do evil and do not repent. The remnant of Joseph is the small number of believers who continue in the faith during a time when the vast majority of the world’s inhabitants have given themselves over to doing evil.(Conte)

¹⁶ Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, the Sovereign: In all the streets, there will be wailing. And in every place where they are outdoors, they will say, “Woe, woe!” And they will call the farmer to mourn, and those who know mourning to lamentation.

¹⁷ And in all the vineyards there will be wailing. For I will cross through your midst, says the Lord.

¹⁸ Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord. What is it to you? The day of the Lord is this: darkness and not light.

¹⁹ It is as if a man flees from the face of a lion, only to have a bear meet him; or, he enters a house and leans with his hand against the wall, only to have a snake bite him.

²⁰ Will not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?

²¹ I hate and have rejected your feasts; and I will not accept the odor from your gatherings.

²² For if you offer me holocausts and your gifts, I will not receive them; and I will not look upon the vows of your fatness.

²³ Take away from me the tumult of your songs, and I will not listen to the canticles of your lyre.

²⁴ And judgment will be revealed like water, and justice like a mighty torrent.

²⁵ Was it you who offered victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, house of Israel?¹

1. 5:25Did you offer, etc: Except the sacrifices that were offered at the first, in the dedication of the tabernacle, the Israelites offered no sacrifices in the desert.(Challoner)

²⁶ And you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch and the image of your idols: the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.¹

1. 5:26A tabernacle, etc: All this alludes to the idolatry which they committed, when they were drawn away by the daughters of Moab to the worship of their gods. Num. 25.(Challoner)

²⁷ And I will cause you to go into captivity across Damascus, says the Lord. The God of hosts is his name.