1. Listen to this message that I am singing for you, a lament, house of Israel:
2. She has fallen;Virgin Israel will never rise again. She lies abandoned on her land,with no one to raise her up.
3. For the Lord God says:The city that marches out a thousand strongwill have only a hundred left, and the one that marches out a hundred strongwill have only ten left in the house of Israel.
4. For the Lord says to the house of Israel:Seek Me and live!
5. Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal or journey to Beer-sheba, for Gilgal will certainly go into exile,and Bethel will come to nothing.
6. Seek Yahweh and live,or He will spread like fire throughout the house of Joseph;it will consume everything,with no one at Bethel to extinguish it.
7. Those who turn justice into wormwood throw righteousness to the ground.