A Lamentation against Israel 1 UST You people of Israel, listen to this sad funeral song that I am singing about you: BSB BSB: Hear this word, O house of Israel, this lamentation I take up against you:
2 UST Enemies have devastated my dear people of Israel, and they are unable to defend themselves. The enemies have come into their land and can do to them whatever they want to do there. There is no one to help them. BSB BSB: “Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.”
3 UST You will need this sad funeral song because Yahweh our Lord says this about Israel,“When your enemies attack you, a town that sends out a thousand soldiers to fight will have only a hundred who survive, and a town that sends out a hundred soldiers will have only ten who survive.” BSB BSB: This is what the Lord GOD says: “The city that marches out a thousand strong will have but a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strong will have but ten left in the house of Israel.”
A Call to Repentance (Joel 1:13–20; Zephaniah 2:1–3; Luke 13:1–5)
4 UST But Yahweh also says this to you people of Israel,“Sincerely worship me again, and then you will live. BSB BSB: For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live!
5 UST Do not go to the town of Bethel{ to worship anything there}, and do not go to the town of Gilgal, and do not travel to the town of Beersheba{ to worship there, either}. Your enemies will certainly take the people of Gilgal away to a foreign country, and the people of Bethel will experience evil things because they worship evil things.” BSB BSB: Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.
6 UST Sincerely worship Yahweh again, and then you will live. If you do not do that, Yahweh will punish you descendants of Joseph as suddenly and fiercely as a fire spreads. Yahweh will punish you like a fire that destroys everything, and that no one in Bethel will be able to stop. BSB BSB: Seek the LORD and live, or He will sweep like fire through the house of Joseph; it will devour everything, with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.
7 UST { I am talking to you} people who do not decide things fairly. Instead, you make life{ as bitter as the taste of} wormwood for people. You consider that living in the right way is{ as worthless as trash} on the ground. BSB BSB: There are those who turn justice into wormwood and cast righteousness to the ground.
8 UST There is one who created{ the star groups that people call} the Pleiades and Orion.{ Every morning} he turns the darkness into daylight, and{ every evening} he turns the daylight into darkness. He summons the waters in the sea and pours them out{ as rain} on the surface of the earth. The name of that one is Yahweh! BSB BSB: He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns darkness into dawn and darkens day into night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth—the LORD is His name—
9 UST He suddenly destroys strong people, and destroys the strong walls of cities. BSB BSB: He flashes destruction on the strong, so that fury comes upon the stronghold.
10 UST You people hate any leader who officially corrects people who do wrong, and you hate anyone who tells the truth. BSB BSB: There are those who hate the one who reproves in the gate and despise him who speaks with integrity.
11 UST So, because you oppress poor people and force them to give you part of their grain, this is what will happen: Although you have built large mansions out of cut stone, you will not live in them. Although you have planted pleasant vineyards, you will not drink the wine that comes from them. BSB BSB: Therefore, because you trample on the poor and exact from him a tax of grain, you will never live in the stone houses you have built; you will never drink the wine from the lush vineyards you have planted.
12 UST This will happen because I know that you have sinned very many times, and that the things that you have done are terrible. You oppress people who do what is right, and you accept bribes{ to do what is wrong}, and at the city gate{ where leaders decide legal matters} you treat poor people unjustly and send them away. BSB BSB: For I know that your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous. You oppress the righteous by taking bribes; you deprive the poor of justice in the gate.
13 UST So at that time, wise people will be quiet, because it will be customary in that time for people to do evil things. BSB BSB: Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil.
14 UST Start doing what is good, and stop doing what is evil, in order that you may stay alive. If you do that, Yahweh, God{ the commander} of the heavenly armies, will help you, just as you claim that he does. BSB BSB: Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.
15 UST Hate what is evil, and love what is good, and make sure that people decide things fairly at the city gate{ where leaders decide legal matters}. If you do that, maybe Yahweh, God{ the commander} of the heavenly armies, will act kindly toward you descendants of Joseph who are still alive. BSB BSB: Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”
Woe to Rebellious Israel (Acts 7:39–43)
16 UST So this is what Yahweh, God{ the commander} of the heavenly armies, our Lord, says,“People will be weeping loudly in all the public squares, and in all the streets people will cry out,‘This is terrible! This is terrible!’ People will summon the farmers to come and mourn, and they will summon those who lament at funerals to wail. BSB BSB: 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.
17 UST People will be weeping in all the vineyards, because I will come and punish you.” That is what Yahweh says. BSB BSB: There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst,” says the LORD.
18 UST Terrible things will happen to you people who long for the day when Yahweh comes! You should not think that the day when Yahweh comes will be good for you. On that day Yahweh will punish you severely, and nothing good will happen to you. BSB BSB: 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.
19 UST On that day, you will be like a man who runs away from a lion but then meets a bear; or who flees into his house and rests his hand on the wall, and a snake bites him. BSB BSB: 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.
20 UST On the day when Yahweh judges people, he will surely punish you severely and nothing good will happen to you. Yes, it will be a time when you are deeply sad; you will not be happy at all. BSB BSB: Will not the Day of the LORD be darkness and not light, even gloom with no brightness in it?
21 UST { Yahweh says,}“I hate your religious celebrations; I completely reject them, and your assemblies{ when you gather to worship} do not please me at all. BSB BSB: “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
22 UST Even if you offer to me animals that you completely burn on the altar, and offerings of grain, I will not accept them. Even if you offer me your best animals as fellowship sacrifices, I will pay no attention to them. BSB BSB: 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.
23 UST Your songs are just noise to me; stop singing them. I refuse to listen to the music that you play on your harps. BSB BSB: Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.
24 UST Instead, you should be treating people justly, and you should always be doing what is right. You should be doing these things continually, like a stream of water that flows and never stops. BSB BSB: But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
25 UST You people of Israel, when your ancestors traveled through the wilderness for forty years, they did not bring animal sacrifices and grain offerings to me. BSB BSB: Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
26 UST Instead, you have carried the idols that you made for yourselves: Sikkuth, the god you treated as your king, and Kiyyun, the star-god that you worshiped. BSB BSB: You have taken along Sakkuth your king and Kaiwan your star god, the idols you made for yourselves.
27 UST So I will force you to go far away, beyond the city of Damascus, into exile.” That is what the one whose name is Yahweh, God{ the commander} of the heavenly armies, says. BSB BSB: Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.