This is what the Lord God says: "Officers leaving the city with 1000 men will return with only 100 men. Officers leaving the city with 100 men will return with only ten men."
But don't look in Bethel. Don't go to Gilgal. Don't cross the border and go down to Beersheba. The people of Gilgal will be taken away as prisoners, and Bethel will be destroyed.
You should go to the Lord for help. He is the one who made the Pleiades and Orion. He changes darkness into the morning light. He changes the day into the dark night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth. His name is Yahweh! He keeps one strong city safe, and he lets another strong city be destroyed." You change goodness to poison. You killed justice, and let it fall to the ground.
{Prophets} go to the public places and speak against the evil the people are doing, and the people hate them. They teach good, simple truths, and the people hate them.
You take unfair taxes from the poor. You take loads of wheat from them. You build fancy houses with cut stone, but you will not live in them. You plant beautiful vineyards, but you will not drink the wine from them.
This is because I know about your many sins. You have done some very bad things: You hurt people who do right, you accept money to do wrong, and you keep the poor from receiving justice in court.
Hate evil and love goodness. Bring justice back into the courts. Maybe then the Lord God All-Powerful will be kind to the survivors from Joseph's family.
The Lord God All-Powerful says, "People will be crying in the public places. They will be crying in the streets. They will hire the professional criers.
You will be like someone who escapes from a lion only to be attacked by a bear, or like someone who goes into the safety of his house, leans against the wall, and is bitten by a snake.
Even if you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will not even look at the fat animals you give as fellowship offerings.