‘Seek me and live,
⁵ but don’t seek Bethel.
Don’t go to Gilgal,
        and don’t pass over to Beer-sheba.
Because Gilgal will surely go into captivity,^[a]
    and Bethel will come to nothing.

⁶ ‘Seek the Lord and live!
    Otherwise, he may break out like a fire in the house of Joseph
        and devour Bethel,^[b]
    and there will be no one to extinguish it.
⁷ Those of you who are making justice taste bitter,^[c]
    and who have thrown righteousness to the ground:
⁸ Seek^[d] the one who fashions the Pleiades and Orion,
    who turns the deep darkness^[e] into morning,
    who darkens day into night,
    who calls out to the waters of the sea,
        pouring them out onto the surface of the earth—
    the Lord is his name.
⁹ It is he who is raining sudden destruction
    upon the strong like lightning,^[f]
        so that ruin comes upon the fortress.
¹⁰ They have hated those who are presenting their cases in court,^[g]
    detesting the one who speaks truthfully.

¹¹ ‘Therefore, since you trample the poor continuously,
    taxing his grain,
    building houses of stone in which you won’t live
    and planting fine vineyards from which you won’t drink—
¹² and because I know that your transgressions are many,
    and your sins are numerous
as you oppose the righteous,
    taking bribes as a ransom,
        and turning away the poor in court^[h]—
¹³ therefore the prudent person remains silent at such a time,
    for the time is evil.

¹⁴ ‘Pursue good and not evil,
    so that you may live,
and this is what will happen:^[i]
    The Lord God of the Heavenly Armies will be with you,
        as you have been claiming.
¹⁵ Hate evil and love good,
    and establish justice in court—^[j]
perhaps the Lord, the God of the Heavenly Armies,
will be gracious to the survivors of Joseph.’”