Hear ye
this word which I take up against you, even a
lamentation, O house of Israel.
02 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no
more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; there
is none to raise her up.
03 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.
04 For thus saith the Lord unto the house of
Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
05 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.
06 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.
07 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave
off righteousness in the earth,
08 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:
09 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the
strong, so that the spoiled shall come against
the fortress.
10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and
they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I
will pass through thee, saith the Lord.
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.
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.
20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and
not light? even very dark, and no brightness in
it?
21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will
not smell in your solemn assemblies.
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.
23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs;
for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
24 But let judgment run down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty stream.
25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and
offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house
of Israel?
26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your
Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your
god, which ye made to yourselves.
27 Therefore will I cause you to go into
captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose
name is The God of hosts.
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