Certainly ¹  I am aware of ²  your many rebellious acts ³  and your numerous sins. You ⁴  torment the innocent, you take bribes, and you deny justice to ⁵  the needy at the city gate. ⁶ 

They sing ¹  to the tune of ²  stringed instruments; ³  like David they invent ⁴  musical instruments.

“They do not know how to do what is right.” (The Lord is speaking.) “They store up ¹  the spoils of destructive violence ²  in their fortresses.

The sovereign Lord showed me this: I saw ¹  the sovereign Lord summoning a shower of fire. ²  It consumed the great deep and devoured the fields.

He builds the upper rooms of his palace ¹  in heaven and sets its foundation supports ²  on the earth. ³  He summons the water of the sea and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name.

(But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion; he can turn the darkness into morning and daylight ¹  into night. He summons the water of the seas and pours it out on the earth’s surface. The Lord is his name!

I will turn your festivals into funerals, ¹  and all your songs into funeral dirges. I will make everyone wear funeral clothes ²  and cause every head to be shaved bald. ³  I will make you mourn as if you had lost your only son; ⁴  when it ends it will indeed have been a bitter day. ⁵ 

Take away from me your ¹  noisy songs; I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments. ² 

You did not bring me ¹  sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family ²  of Israel.

They drink wine from sacrificial bowls, ¹  and pour the very best oils on themselves. ²  Yet they are not concerned over ³  the ruin ⁴  of Joseph.

Seek the Lord so you can live! Otherwise he will break out ¹  like fire against Joseph’s ²  family; ³  the fire ⁴  will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel. ⁵ 

“Look! I am about to bring ¹  a nation against you, family ²  of Israel.” The Lord, the God who commands armies, is speaking. “They will oppress ³  you all the way from Lebo-Hamath ⁴  to the Stream of the Arabah.” ⁵ 

People from ¹  two or three cities staggered into one city to get ²  water, but remained thirsty. ³  Still you did not come back to me.” The Lord is speaking!

Can horses run on rocky cliffs? Can one plow the sea with oxen? ¹  Yet you have turned justice into a poisonous plant, and the fruit of righteous actions into a bitter plant. ² 

Do two walk together without having met? ¹ 

Because of this the earth ¹  will quake, ²  and all who live in it will mourn. The whole earth ³  will rise like the River Nile, ⁴  it will surge upward ⁵  and then grow calm, ⁶  like the Nile in Egypt. ⁷ 

The Israelites ¹  turn justice into bitterness; ²  they throw what is fair and right ³  to the ground. ⁴ 

When their close relatives, the ones who will burn the corpses, ¹  pick up their bodies to remove the bones from the house, they will say to anyone who is in the inner rooms of the house, “Is anyone else with you?” He will respond, “Be quiet! Don’t invoke the Lord’s name!” ² 

Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, ¹  family ²  of Israel:

The Lord decided not to do this. ¹  “It will not happen,” the Lord said.