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 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.
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