1 Hear this word that I am bearing to you, A lamentation, O house of Israel:
2 `Fallen, not again to rise, hath the virgin of Israel, Left on her land--she hath no raiser up.'
3 For thus said the Lord Jehovah: The city that is going out a thousand, Doth leave an hundred, And that which is going out an hundred, Doth leave ten to the house of Israel.
4 For thus said Jehovah to the house of Israel: Seek ye Me, and live,
5 And seek not Beth-El, and Gilgal enter not, And Beer-Sheba pass not through, For Gilgal doth utterly remove, And Beth-El doth become vanity.
6 Seek ye Jehovah, and live, Lest He prosper as fire [against] the house of Joseph, And it hath consumed, And there is no quencher for Beth-El.
7 Ye who are turning to wormwood judgment, And righteousness to the earth have put down,