[1] Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel. [2] The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. [3] For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel. [4] For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: [5] But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely and Bethel shall come to nought. [6] Seek and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel. [7] Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, [8] Seek him that maketh the seven stars 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: The LORD is his name: [9] That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress. [10] They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh 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 know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate [13] Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. [14] Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of 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 hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. [16] Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, 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 thee, saith the LORD.