| 1: Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a
lamentation, O house of Israel. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 4: For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me,
and ye shall live: |
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| 5: But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to
Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall
come to nought. |
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| 6: 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. |
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| 7: Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness
in the earth, |
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| 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: |
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| 9: That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the
spoiled shall come against the fortress. |
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| 10: They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him
that speaketh uprightly. |
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| 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. |
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| 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 from their right. |
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| 13: Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it
is an evil time. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as
are skilful of lamentation to wailing. |
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| 17: And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass
through thee, saith the LORD. |
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| 18: Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is
it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. |
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| 19: As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went
into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
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| 20: Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light?
even very dark, and no brightness in it? |
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| 21: I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in
your solemn assemblies. |
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| 22: Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I
will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your
fat beasts. |
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| 23: Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not
hear the melody of thy viols. |
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| 24: But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a
mighty stream. |
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| 25: Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the
wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? |
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| 26: But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun
your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. |
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| 27: Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond
Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts. |
