1. Listen to this word, which I lift over you in lamentation. The house of Israel has fallen, and it will no longer rise again.
2. The virgin of Israel has been thrown onto her land, there is no one who can raise her up.
3. For thus says the Lord God: In the city from which a thousand departed, a hundred will remain, and in that from which a hundred departed, ten will remain, in the house of Israel.
4. For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek me and you will live.
5. But do not be willing to seek Bethel, and do not be willing to enter Gilgal, and you will not cross into Beer-sheba. For Gilgal will be led into captivity, and Bethel will be useless.
6. Seek the Lord and live. Otherwise, the house of Joseph may be destroyed with fire, and it will devour, and there will be no one who can extinguish Bethel.
7. You turn judgment into wormwood, and you abandon justice on earth.
8. The Maker of Arcturus and Orion, who turns darkness into daybreak and who changes day into night; who calls forth the waters of the sea and who pours them out over the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.
9. It is he who smiles destruction on the healthy, and who brings pillaging upon the powerful.
10. They held hatred for the one who corrects at the gate, and they have abhorred the one who speaks perfectly.
11. Therefore, on his behalf, because you have torn apart the poor and stolen choice prey from him: you will build houses with square stones and you will not dwell in them; you will plant the most delightful vineyards, and you will not drink wine from them.