5 Do not seek Bethel!Do not visit Gilgal!Do not journey down to Beer Sheba!For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile;and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.”
6 Seek the Lord so you can live!Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph’s family;the fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel.
7 The Israelites turn justice into bitterness;they throw what is fair and right to the ground.
8 (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;he can turn the darkness into morningand daylight into night.He summons the water of the seasand pours it out on the earth’s surface.The Lord is his name!
9 He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.)
10 The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate;they despise anyone who speaks honestly.
11 Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their cropsand exact a grain tax from them,you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone,nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted.