A Lament and Call to Repentance
Hear ye this word which I take up against you,
even a lamentation,
O house of Israel.
The virgin of Israel is fallen;
she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land;
there is none to raise her up.
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.
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel,
---Seek ye Me, and ye shall live:
---But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba:
for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity,
and Bethel shall come to nought.
Seek the LORD, 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.
Vs.1 -6
The convincing, awakening word must be heard and heeded, as well as words of comfort and peace; And that it just the message of God to professing Christians now: “Seek ye Me.”
--While they refuse to come to Christ and to seek mercy in and by Him, that they may live, the fire of Divine wrath breaks forth upon 
them.
The city that went out by a thousand - The city that could easily have
furnished, on any emergency, a thousand fighting men, can now produce
scarcely one hundred - one in ten of the former number; and now of the
hundred scarcely ten remain: so reduced was Israel when Shalmaneser
besieged and took Samaria, and carried the residue into captivity.
But seek not Beth-el - There was one of Jeroboam's golden calves, and at
Gilgal were carved images; both were places in which idolatry was
triumphant.
--The prophet shows them that all hope from those quarters is
utterly vain; for Gilgal shall go into captivity, and Beth-el be brought
to naught.
*There is a play or paronomasia on the letters and words in
this clause: הגלגל גלה יגלה ובית אל יהיה לאון haggilgal galoh yigleh,
ubeith el yiheyeh leaven. "This Gilgal shall go captive into captivity;
and Beth-el (the house of God) shall be for Beth-aven," (the house of
iniquity.)
Men may make an idol of the world,
but will find it cannot protect.
