Chapter 5

  Hear ye this word which I take up against 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 forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.  

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  For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred, and that which went forth by a hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.  

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  For thus saith the LORD to the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:  

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  But seek not 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 naught.  

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  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 Beth-el.  

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  Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness on the earth,  

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  Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shades 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: JEHOVAH is his name:  

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  That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress.  

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  They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.  

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  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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  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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  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 ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.  

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  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 to the remnant of Joseph.  

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  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 skillful in lamentation to wailing.  

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  And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.  

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  Woe to 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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  As if 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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  Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?  

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  I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.  

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  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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  Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.  

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  But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.  

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  Have ye offered to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?  

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  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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  Therefore I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.  

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