1 Hear this word which I take up against you, a lamentation, O house of Israel:
2 The virgin of Israel has fallen;She will rise no more.She lies forsaken on her land;There is no one to raise her up.
3 For thus says the Lord God:“The city that goes out by a thousandShall have a hundred left,And that which goes out by a hundredShall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:“Seek Me and live;
5 But do not seek Bethel,Nor enter Gilgal,Nor pass over to Beersheba;For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,And Bethel shall come to nothing.
6 Seek the Lord and live,Lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph,And devour it,With no one to quench it in Bethel—
7 You who turn justice to wormwood,And lay righteousness to rest in the earth!”