Page 5 of  9

Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a lamentation, O house of Israel (5:1)

The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up (5:2)

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 (5:3)

For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live: (5:4)

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 (5:5)

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 (5:6)

Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth, (5:7)

[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: (5:8)

That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress (5:9)

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly (5:10)

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 (5:11)

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] (5:12)

Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it [is] an evil time (5:13)

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 (5:14)

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 (5:15)

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 (5:16)

And in all vineyards [shall be] wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the Lord (5:17)

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 (5:18)

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 (5:19)

[Shall] not the day of the Lord [be] darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? (5:20)

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies (5:21)

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 (5:22)

Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols (5:23)

But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream (5:24)

Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? (5:25)

But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves (5:26)

Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name [is] The God of hosts (5:27)

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