5 Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you:

2

“Fallen is Virgin Israel,

never to rise again,

deserted in her own land,

with no one to lift her up.”

3 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Israel:

“Your city that marches out a thousand strong

will have only a hundred left;

your town that marches out a hundred strong

will have only ten left.”

4 This is what the Lord says to Israel:

“Seek me and live;

5

do not seek Bethel,

do not go to Gilgal,

do not journey to Beersheba.

For Gilgal will surely go into exile,

and Bethel will be reduced to nothing.[a]”

6

Seek the Lord and live,

or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire;

it will devour them,

and Bethel will have no one to quench it.

7

There are those who turn justice into bitterness

and cast righteousness to the ground.

8

He who made the Pleiades and Orion,

who turns midnight into dawn

and darkens day into night,

who calls for the waters of the sea

and pours them out over the face of the land—

the Lord is his name.

9

With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold

and brings the fortified city to ruin.