1 Hear ye this word, because I raise up a lamentation upon you, O house of Israel.
2 The virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall not be able to rise again: she was forsaken upon her land; there is no one to raise her up.
3 For thus hath the Lord GOD said: The city that sent out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which sent forth a hundred shall have ten, in the house of Israel.
4 But thus hath the LORD said unto the house of Israel, Seek me, and ye shall live: 5 but do not seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and do not pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour it, and there be no one to quench it in Bethel. 7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off doing righteousness in the earth,
8 look unto him that makes the seven stars and Orion and turns the shadow of death into the morning and makes the day dark with night, that calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name; 9 that strengthens the spoiler against the strong, so that the spoiler shall come against the fortress.
10 They hate him that rebukes in the gate, and they abhor him that speaks uprightly. 11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat, ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them. 12 For I have known of your many rebellions and your great sins that afflict the just and take a ransom and turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek that which is good, and not that which is evil that ye may live; and so the LORD, the God of the hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. 15 Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate; it may be that the LORD God of the hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
16 Therefore the LORD, the God of the hosts, the Lord, said this: Wailing shall be in all streets, and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. 17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of thee, said the LORD.