King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel.
1
Listen, people of Israel, to this funeral song which I sing over you:
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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Virgin Israel has fallen, Never to rise again! She lies abandoned on the ground, And no one helps her up.
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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The Sovereign Lord says, "A city in Israel sends out a thousand soldiers, but only a hundred return; another city sends out a hundred, but only ten come back."
4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:
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The Lord says to the people of Israel, "Come to me, and you will live.
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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Do not go to Beersheba to worship. Do not try to find me at Bethel - Bethel will come to nothing. Do not go to Gilgal - her people are doomed to exile."
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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Go to the Lord, and you will live. If you do not go, he will sweep down like fire on the people of Israel. The fire will burn up the people of Bethel, and no one will be able to put it out.
7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,
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You are doomed, you that twist justice and cheat people out of their rights!
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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The Lord made the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into daylight and day into night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the earth. His name is the Lord.
9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
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He brings destruction on the mighty and their strongholds.
10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
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You people hate anyone who challenges injustice and speaks the whole truth in court.
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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You have oppressed the poor and robbed them of their grain. And so you will not live in the fine stone houses you build or drink wine from the beautiful vineyards you plant.
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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I know how terrible your sins are and how many crimes you have committed. You persecute good people, take bribes, and prevent the poor from getting justice in the courts.
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.
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And so, keeping quiet in such evil times is the smart thing to do!
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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Make it your aim to do what is right, not what is evil, so that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty really will be with you, as you claim he is.
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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Hate what is evil, love what is right, and see that justice prevails in the courts. Perhaps the Lord will be merciful to the people of this nation who are still left alive.
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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And so the Sovereign Lord Almighty says, "There will be wailing and cries of sorrow in the city streets. Even farmers will be called to mourn the dead along with those who are paid to mourn.
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.
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There will be wailing in all the vineyards. All this will take place because I am coming to punish you." The Lord has spoken.
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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How terrible it will be for you who long for the day of the Lord! What good will that day do you? For you it will be a day of darkness and not of light.
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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It will be like someone who runs from a lion and meets a bear! Or like someone who comes home and puts his hand on the wall - only to be bitten by a snake!
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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The day of the Lord will bring darkness and not light; it will be a day of gloom, without any brightness.
21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
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The Lord says, "I hate your religious festivals; I cannot stand them!
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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When you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; I will not accept the animals you have fattened to bring me as offerings.
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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Stop your noisy songs; I do not want to listen to your harps.
24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.
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Instead, let justice flow like a stream, and righteousness like a river that never goes dry.
25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
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"People of Israel, I did not demand sacrifices and offerings during those forty years that I led you through the desert.
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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But now, because you have worshiped images of Sakkuth, your king god, and of Kaiwan, your star god, you will have to carry those images
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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when I take you into exile in a land beyond Damascus," says the Lord, whose name is Almighty God.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.