1. Hear ye this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.
2. The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is cast down upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
3. For thus saith the Lord GOD The city that went forth a thousand shall have an hundred left, and that which went forth an hundred shall have ten left, to the house of Israel.
4. For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
5. but seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.
6. Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour and there be none to quench it in Beth-el:
7. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth;
8. seek him that maketh 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; the Lord is his name;
9. that bringeth sudden destruction upon the strong, so that destruction cometh upon the fortress.
10. They hate him that reproveth in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
11. Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine thereof.
12. For I know how manifold are your transgressions, and how mighty are your sins; ye that afflict the just, that take a bribe, and that turn aside the needy in the gate from their right.
13. Therefore he that is prudent shall keep silence in such a time; for it is an evil time.