A Lament and Call to Repentance
Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion,
and turneth the shadow of death into the 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: That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate,
and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
Hate the evil, and love the good,
and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyards shall be wailing:
for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
The same almighty power can, for repenting sinners, easily turn
affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, and as easily turn the
prosperity of daring sinners into utter darkness.
Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, —
The Creator 
of the spring-bringing Pleiades, and of the winter-bringing Orion.
And turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night- The God of the weak, the Defender of the oppressed.
Calleth for the waters of the sea - Raising them up by evaporation, and collecting them into clouds.
And poureth them out - Causing them to drop down in showers upon the face of the earth. Who has done this? Jehovah is his name.
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate - They cannot bear an upright magistrate. There is still a generation that cannot bear to be told of its faults,
and that shows its venom against everything that is right.
The prudent shall keep silence - A wise man will consider that it is
useless to complain. He can have no justice without bribes; and he has
no money to give: consequently, in such an evil time, it is best to keep
silence.
Seek good, and not evil - Is there a greater mystery in the world, than
that a mall, instead of seeking good, will seek evil, knowing that it is
evil?
And in all vineyards shall be wailing - The places where festivity especially used to prevail.
I will pass through thee - As I passed, by the ministry of the destroying angel, through Egypt, not to spare, but to destroy.
The Lord is ever ready to be gracious to the souls that seek Him; and
then piety and every duty will be attended to. But as for sinful Israel,
God's judgments had often passed by them, now they shall pass through
them.
Here you have another great truth,
— that, in order to seek God aright,
we must turn away from sin.
