1. Listen to this word which I take up for a lamentation over you, O house of Israel.
2. “The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up.”
3. For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out one hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
4. For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live;
5. but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.
6. Seek Yahweh, and you will live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel.