"'I hate and abhor your holidays, and whereas ye cense me when ye come together I will not accept it.

'Woe be unto them that desire the day of the LORD: Wherefore would ye have it? As for that day of the LORD, it shall be dark and not clear.

but see that equity flow as the water, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

Ye turn the law to wormwood, and cast down righteousness into the ground.

He raiseth destruction upon the mighty people, and bringeth down the stronghold.

Forsomuch then as ye oppress the poor, and rob him of his best sustenance: therefore, where as ye have builded houses of square stone, ye shall not dwell in them. Marvelous pleasant vineyards shall ye plant; but the wine of them shall ye not drink. And why?

Hear this word, O ye house of Israel. And why? I must make this moan for you:

As for the multitude of your wickednesses and your stout sins, I know them right well. Enemies are ye of the righteous; ye take rewards; ye oppress the poor in judgment.

"'If no,' sayeth the LORD God, the God of hosts, 'there shall be mourning in all streets. Yea, they shall say in every street: alas, alas. They shall call the husbandman to lamentation; and such as can mourn, to mourning.

In all vineyards there shall be heaviness, for I will come among you,' sayeth the LORD.

Therefore the wise must now be fain to hold his tongue, so wicked a time is it.

O ye house of Israel, gave ye me offerings and sacrifices those forty years long in the wilderness?

"Nevertheless, thus sayeth the LORD unto the house of Israel, 'Seek after me, and ye shall live;

Away with that noise of thy songs, I will not hear thy plays of music:

but seek not after Bethel. come not at Gilgal, and go not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall be carried away captive, and Bethel shall come to naught.

Yea, like as when a man runneth from a lion, and a bear meeteth with him; or when he cometh into the house, and leaneth his hand upon the wall, a serpent biteth him.

The virgin Israel shall fall, and never rise up again: she shall be cast down upon her own ground, and no man shall help her up.

Shall not the day of the LORD be dark, and not clear? Shall it not be cloudy, and no shine in it?

And though ye offer me burnt offerings and meat offerings, yet have I no pleasure therein. As for your fat thank offerings, I will not look upon them.

For thus sayeth the LORD God, 'Whereas there dwelt a thousand in one city, there shall be left scarcely a hundred therein: and where before dwelt a hundred, there shall scarcely ten be left for the house of Israel.'

Therefore will I cause you be carried away beyond Damascus,' sayeth the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts."

Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into morning and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: the LORD is his name.

Yet have ye set up tabernacles to your Moloch, and images of your Idols, yea and the star of your god Rempha: figures which ye made to worship them.

But they owe him evil will, that reproveth them openly: and whoso telleth them the plain truth, they abhor him.

Seek after the thing that is good, and not evil, so shall ye live: yea, the LORD God of hosts shall be with you, according to your own desire.

Hate the evil, and love the good. Set up right again in the port and, no doubt, the LORD God of hosts shall be merciful unto the remnant of Joseph.

Seek the LORD, that ye may live: lest the house of Joseph be burnt with fire and consumed, and lest there be none to quench Bethel.