Audite verbum istud, quod ego levo super vos planctum: domus Israël cecidit, et non adjiciet ut resurgat.

Hear ye this word, which I take up concerning you for a lamentation. The house of Israel is fallen, and it shall rise no more.

Please you then listen to the dirge I raise for you, men of Israel: Fallen she is, never to rise again,

Virgo Israël projecta est in terram suam, non est qui suscitet eam.

The virgin of Israel is cast down upon her land, there is none to raise her up.

Israel, the unsubdued; stretched at full length she lies there forsaken!

Quia hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Urbs de qua egrediebantur mille, relinquentur in ea centum; et de qua egrediebantur centum, relinquentur in ea decem in domo Israël.

For thus saith the Lord God: The city, out of which came forth a thousand, there shall be left in it a hundred: and out of which there came a hundred, there shall be left in it ten, in the house of Israel.

Ay, the Lord God says, but a hundred citizens, but ten villagers left to you, city that marched out a thousand, village a hundred strong!

Quia hæc dicit Dominus domui Israël: Quærite me, et vivetis.

For thus saith the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and you shall live.

Yet warning the Lord gave to the race of Israel: On peril of your lives, to my aid betake you!

Et nolite quærere Bethel, et in Galgalam nolite intrare, et in Bersabee non transibitis, quia Galgala captiva ducetur, et Bethel erit inutilis.

But seek not Bethel, and go not into Galgal, neither shall you pass over to Bersabee: for Galgal shall go into captivity, and Bethel shall be unprofitable.

Not to Bethel, not to Galgal’s ring-shrine, or Bersabee pilgrimage; a long road yonder circle shall lead you, a road that never returns; house of God shall not avail you, that is home of idols now!

Quærite Dominum, et vivite (ne forte comburatur ut ignis domus Joseph, et devorabit, et non erit qui extinguat Bethel:

Seek ye the Lord, and live: lest the house of Joseph be burnt with fire, and it shall devour, and there shall be none to quench Bethel.

On your lives, to the Lord betake you, as you would not see all Joseph ablaze, quenchless fire raging over Bethel!

qui convertitis in absinthium judicium, et justitiam in terra relinquitis):

You that turn judgment into wormwood, and forsake justice in the land,

And still you poison the springs of justice, still in the dust fling honour away.…

facientem Arcturum et Orionem, et convertentem in mane tenebras, et diem in noctem mutantem; qui vocat aquas maris, et effundit eas super faciem terræ; Dominus nomen est ejus:

Seek him that maketh Arcturus, and Orion, and that turneth darkness into morning, and that changeth day into night: that calleth the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.

Creator he of Arcturus and Orion; dawn brings he out of darkness, and turns night to day, beckons to the waters of the sea, and over the surface of earth spreads them, such the power of his name!

qui subridet vastitatem super robustum, et depopulationem super potentem affert.

He that with a smile bringeth destruction upon the strong, and waste upon the mighty.

At his glance falls ruin on the strong, devastation on the fortified.

Odio habuerunt corripientem in porta, et loquentem perfecte abominati sunt.

They have hated him that rebuketh in the gate: and have abhorred him that speaketh perfectly.

Ill looks he will earn at yonder city gate, that finds fault; the wise word, there, is a thing abominable.

Idcirco, pro eo quod diripiebatis pauperem, et prædam electam tollebatis ab eo, domos quadro lapide ædificabitis, et non habitabitis in eis; vineas plantabis amantissimas, et non bibetis vinum earum.

Therefore because you robbed the poor, and took the choice prey from him: you shall build houses with square stone, and shall not dwell in them: you shall plant most delightful vineyards, and shall not drink the wine of them.

Yet, trust me, it shall nothing avail you, this harrying of the poor, and taking toll of the best they have. Houses of stone you build you shall never dwell in, sunny vineyards you plant you shall drink of never.

Quia cognovi multa scelera vestra, et fortia peccata vestra: hostes justi, accipientes munus, et pauperes deprimentes in porta.

Because I know your manifold crimes, and your grievous sins: enemies of the just, taking bribes, and oppressing the poor in the gate.

Your often misdoing, your heinous guilt, never think I am blind to it; innocence hated, the bribe taken, the poor refused their rights at the judgement-seat!

Ideo prudens in tempore illo tacebit, quia tempus malum est.

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time, for it is an evil time.

And should wisdom keep silence in times like these, ill times like these?

Quærite bonum, et non malum, ut vivatis; et erit Dominus Deus exercituum vobiscum, sicut dixistis.

Seek ye good, and not evil, that you may live: and the Lord the God of hosts will be with you, as you have said.

Set your minds on right, that now are set on wrong-doing; so you shall find life, so your boast shall come true that the Lord, the God of hosts, is with you.

Odite malum et diligite bonum, et constituite in porta judicium: si forte misereatur Dominus Deus exercituum reliquiis Joseph.

Hate evil, and love good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be the Lord the God of hosts may have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

Shun wrong, cherish the right, justice enthrone at your judgement-seat; then there is hope that the Lord, the God of hosts, will have mercy on some remnant of Joseph’s line.

Propterea hæc dicit Dominus Deus exercituum, dominator: In omnibus plateis planctus; et in cunctis quæ foris sunt, dicetur: Væ, væ! et vocabunt agricolam ad luctum, et ad planctum eos qui sciunt plangere.

Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of hosts the sovereign Lord: In every street there shall be wailing: and in all places that are without, they shall say: Alas, alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful in lamentation to lament.

This doom he utters, he, the Lord of hosts, he, our Master: Market-place or street is none but shall echo with wailing and cries of woe; country-folk, and such as are skilled in mourning, they shall call in to make dirge and dole;

Et in omnibus vineis erit planctus, quia pertransibo in medio tui, dicit Dominus.

And in all vineyards there shall be wailing: because I will pass through in the midst of thee, saith the Lord.

dirge, too, the vineyards shall sing; all this, when I make my way through your midst, the Lord says.

Væ desiderantibus diem Domini! ad quid eam vobis? Dies Domini ista, tenebræ, et non lux.

Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

Fools, that wait eagerly for the day of the Lord’s coming! Think you it shall serve your turn? Nay, it is the Lord’s day of triumph, not yours; dawn it must, but in darkness, not in light.

Quomodo si fugiat vir a facie leonis, et occurrat ei ursus; et ingrediatur domum, et innitatur manu sua super parietem, et mordeat eum coluber.

As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house, and lean with his hand upon the wall, and a serpent should bite him.

Speeds he well, that shuns lion and meets bear? Has he joy of his home-coming, that leans hand on wall, and all at once is bitten by a viper?

Numquid non tenebræ dies Domini, et non lux; et caligo, et non splendor in ea?

Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light: and obscurity, and no brightness in it?

And for you, that day brings darkness, not the light you craved for; no radiance haunts about it, only gloom.

Odi, et projeci festivitates vestras, et non capiam odorem cœtuum vestrorum.

I hate, and have rejected your festivities: and I will not receive the odour of your assemblies.

Oh, but I am sick and tired of them, your solemn feasts; incense that goes up from your assemblies I can breathe no longer!

Quod si obtuleritis mihi holocautomata, et munera vestra, non suscipiam; et vota pinguium vestrorum non respiciam.

And if you offer me holocausts, and your gifts, I will not receive them: neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.

Burnt-sacrifice still? Bloodless offerings still? Nay, I will have none of them; fat be the victims you slay in welcome, I care not.

Aufer a me tumultum carminum tuorum; et cantica lyræ tuæ non audiam.

Take away from me the tumult of thy songs: and I will not hear the canticles of thy harp.

O to be rid of the singing, the harp’s music, that dins my ear!…

Et revelabitur quasi aqua judicium, et justitia quasi torrens fortis.

But judgment shall be revealed as water, and justice as a mighty torrent.

And like waters rolling in full tide, like a perennial stream, right and justice shall abound …

Numquid hostias et sacrificium obtulistis mihi in deserto quadraginta annis, domus Israël?

Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me in the desert for forty years, O house of Israel?

What, men of Israel, did you spend forty years in the desert, ever for me your burnt-sacrifice, ever for me your offerings;

et portastis tabernaculum Moloch vestro, et imaginem idolorum vestrorum, sidus dei vestri, quæ fecistis vobis.

But you carried a tabernacle for your Moloch, and the image of your idols, the star of your god, which you made to yourselves.

and now would you have Moloch for your king, a star for your god, carry shrine of theirs, idolatrous image you made of them, hither and thither?

Et migrare vos faciam trans Damascum, dicit Dominus: Deus exercituum nomen ejus.

And I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, the God of hosts is his name.

What wonder if I banish you beyond Damascus far away? Dooms you with his own sign-manual the Lord, the God of hosts.