1Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.2
The virgin of Israel is fallen ; she shall no morerise : she is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up .
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For thus saith the LordGOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leaveten, to the house of Israel.4
For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel,Seek ye me, and ye shall live :
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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.6Seek 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.7
Ye who turnjudgment to wormwood, and leave offrighteousness in the earth,8
Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the daydark 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:9
That strengtheneth the spoileda 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 speakethuprightly.11Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have builthouses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have plantedpleasantbvineyards, but ye shall not drinkwine of them.
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For I know your manifoldtransgressions and your mightysins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe,c and they turn aside 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 eviltime.14Seekgood, and not evil, that ye may live : and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken .
15Hate the evil, and love the good, and establishjudgment in the gate: it may be that the LORDGod 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 passthrough thee, saith the LORD.
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