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For thussays the LORDconcerning the sons and daughtersborn in thisplace, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in thisland:
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"They will die of deadlydiseases, they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will becomefood for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth."
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For thussays the LORD, "Do not enter a house of mourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from thispeople," declares the LORD, "My lovingkindness and compassion.
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"Both greatmen and small will die in thisland; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them.
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"Men will not break bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, norgive them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone's father or mother.
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For thussays the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I am going to eliminate from thisplace, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.
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"Now when you tellthispeopleallthesewords, they will say to you, 'For whatreason* has the LORDdeclaredallthisgreatcalamityagainst us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sinwhich we have committed against the LORD our God?'
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"Then you are to say to them, 'It is because* your forefathers have forsaken Me,' declares the LORD, 'and have followed*othergods and served them and boweddown to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law.
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'You too have doneevil, even morethan your forefathers; for behold, you are eachonewalkingaccording to the stubbornness of his own evilheart, withoutlistening to Me.
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'So I will hurl you out of thisland into the landwhich you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serveothergodsday and night, for I will grant you nofavor.'
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"Thereforebehold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when it will nolonger be said, 'As the LORDlives, whobrought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,'
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but, 'As the LORDlives, whobrought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countrieswhere* He had banished them.' For I will restore them to their own landwhich I gave to their fathers.
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"Behold, I am going to send for manyfishermen," declares the LORD, "and they will fish for them; and afterwards* I will send for manyhunters, and they will hunt them from everymountain and everyhill and from the clefts of the rocks.
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"I will firstdoublyrepay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestableidols and with their abominations."
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O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, To You the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers have inheritednothing but falsehood, Futility and things of noprofit."
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"Thereforebehold, I am going to make them know - Thistime I will make them know My power and My might; And they shall know that My name is the LORD."