| 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 Beersheba: 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 spoiled1 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 pleasant2 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,3 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 in4 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 peace5 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 run6 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 tabernacle7 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.
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