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- ¶ HEAR this word which I take up concerning you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel:
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- The virgin of Israel is fallen, she shall no more rise;
she is left lying on the ground, there is none to raise her up.
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- For thus says the LORD God: The city out of which went forth a thousand men, there shall be left in it a hundred men;
and that out of which went forth a hundred men, there shall be left in it ten men to the house of Israel.
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- ¶ For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel: Seek me and you shall live;
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- But do not seek Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Beth-el shall come to nought.
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- Seek the LORD and you shall live;
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph and devour Beth-el, and there will be none to quench it.
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- You who turn justice into bitterness, and lower righteousness to the ground,
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- They have forsaken him who made Pleiades and Orion, and who turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark into night;
who calls the waters of the sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth; the LORD is his name;
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- Who makes the weak to rule over the mighty, and exalts the meek over the proud.
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- They hate the poor at the gates, and they abhor him who speaks uprightly.
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- Therefore because you have beaten on the head of the poor and have taken from him the choicest gifts;
the houses of hewn stone which you have built, you shall not dwell in; and from the pleasant vineyards which you have planted, you shall not drink wine.
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- For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great;
you oppress the just, you take a bribe, and you turn aside the cause of the poor in the gate from their right.
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- Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time;
for it is an evil time.
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- Seek good and not evil that you may live;
and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you have spoken.
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- Hate the evil and love the good, and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
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- ¶ Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: In all streets there shall be wailing;
and in all broad places they shall say, Alas! alas! and they shall call the farmers to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
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- And in all vineyards shall be wailing;
for I will pass through the midst of you, says the LORD.
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- Woe to you who desire the day of the LORD!
to what end is it for you? The day of the LORD? For it is a day of darkness and not light.
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- As when a man fled 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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- Such is the day of the LORD;
it is darkness and not light; yea, it is a day of thick darkness and no brightness is in it.
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- ¶ I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell the savor of your solemn assemblies.
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- Though you offer me your burnt offerings and your meal offerings, I will not accept them;
neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
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- Take away from me the noise of your songs;
for I will not hear the melody of your harps.
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- But let justice run down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
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- Did you offer to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel?
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- But you carried the tabernacle of Malcom and Chiun your idol, the star which you made a god to yourselves.
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- Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, says the LORD whose name is the God of hosts.
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