Seek the Lord and Live

5 Hear this word that I ktake up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

2  “Fallen, no more to rise,

is lthe virgin Israel;

forsaken on her land,

with none to raise her up.”

3 For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went out a thousand

shall have a hundred left,

and that which went out a hundred

shall have ten left

to the house of Israel.”

4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

m“Seek me and live;

5  but do not seek nBethel,

and do not enter into nGilgal

or cross over to oBeersheba;

for nGilgal shall surely go into exile,

and nBethel shall come to nothing.”

6  mSeek the Lord and live,

plest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,

and it devour, with none to quench it for nBethel,

7  O qyou who turn justice to wormwood1

and cast down righteousness to the earth!

8  He who made the rPleiades and Orion,

and turns deep darkness into the morning

and sdarkens the day into night,

who tcalls for the waters of the sea

tand pours them out on the surface of the earth,

uthe Lord is his name;

9  vwho makes destruction flash forth against the strong,

so that destruction comes upon the fortress.