1. Hear ye this word, because I raise up a lamentation upon you, O house of Israel.
2. The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall not be able to rise again: she was forsaken upon her land; there is no one to raise her up.
3. For thus hath the Lord GOD said: The city that sent out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which sent forth a hundred shall have ten, in the house of Israel.
4. But thus hath the Lord said unto the house of Israel, Seek me, and ye shall live:
5. but do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
6. Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.
7. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off doing righteousness in the earth,