2. “The virgin Israel has fallen down and will not get up again.She is abandoned on her own land with no one to help her get up.”
3. The sovereign Lord says this:“The city that marches out with a thousand soldiers will have only a hundred left;the town that marches out with a hundred soldiers will have only ten left for the family of Israel.”
4. The Lord says this to the family of Israel:“Seek me so you can live!
5. Do not seek Bethel!Do not visit Gilgal!Do not journey down to Beer Sheba!For the people of Gilgal will certainly be carried into exile;and Bethel will become a place where disaster abounds.”
6. Seek the Lord so you can live!Otherwise he will break out like fire against Joseph’s family;the fire will consume and no one will be able to quench it and save Bethel.
7. The Israelites turn justice into bitterness;they throw what is fair and right to the ground.
8. (But there is one who made the constellations Pleiades and Orion;he can turn the darkness into morningand daylight into night.He summons the water of the seasand pours it out on the earth’s surface.The Lord is his name!
9. He flashes destruction down upon the strong so that destruction overwhelms the fortified places.)
10. The Israelites hate anyone who arbitrates at the city gate;they despise anyone who speaks honestly.
11. Therefore, because you make the poor pay taxes on their cropsand exact a grain tax from them,you will not live in the houses you built with chiseled stone,nor will you drink the wine from the fine vineyards you planted.