1. Hear this word, a lamentation, which I take up against you, O house of Israel.
2. The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more arise: she is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
3. For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left, for the house of Israel.
4. For thus saith Jehovah unto the house of Israel: Seek ye me, and ye shall live.
5. And seek not Bethel, neither go to Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
6. Seek Jehovah, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.
7. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth,
8. seek him that made the Pleiades 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: Jehovah is his name.
9. He causeth destruction to break forth suddenly upon the strong, and bringeth destruction upon the fortress.
10. They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.