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 Jehovah: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left, to the house of Israel.
4 For thus saith Jehovah 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 Jehovah, 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 justice 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 (Jehovah 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.