1. Hear this word which I take up as a dirge against you, O house of Israel:
2. Fallen, no more to riseis maiden Israel;forsaken on her land,with no one to raise her up.
3. For thus says the Lord God: The city that went out with a thousandwill be left with a hundred,and the one that went out with a hundredwill be left with ten for the house of Israel.
4. Indeed, thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek Me and live!
5. But do not seek Bethel,and do not enter into Gilgalor cross over to Beersheba;for Gilgal will surely go into captivity,and Bethel shall be no more.
6. Seek the Lord and live,or He will break out like fire in the house of Joseph,and it will devour Bethel,with no one to quench it.
7. You who turn justice into bitternessand cast righteousness down to the ground!
8. The One who made the Pleiades and Orion,who turns the deep darkness into dawnand darkens the day into night,who summons the waters of the seaand pours them out on the surface of the earth—the Lord is His name,
9. the One who flashes destruction against the strong,so that destruction comes against the fortress.