12. For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are numerous, you foes of the righteous, those who take a bribe, and those who push aside the poor ones in the gate!
13. Therefore, whoever has insight will keep silent in that time, for it is a time of evil.
14. Seek good and not bad in order that you may live, and so Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
15. Hate evil and love good and establish justice in the gate; perhaps Yahweh, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
16. Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, my Lord, “In all of the public squares there will be wailing, and in all of the streets they will say, ‘Alas, alas, alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing, to those who are skilled in lamentation.