| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1Hear this word, Israel, this lament I take up concerning you: |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2"Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again, deserted in her own land, with no one to lift her up." |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Israel: "Your city that marches out a thousand strong will have only a hundred left; your town that marches out a hundred strong will have only ten left." |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4This is what the LORD says to Israel: "Seek me and live; |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing." |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land-- the LORD is his name. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9With a blinding flash he destroys the stronghold and brings the fortified city to ruin. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10There are those who hate the one who upholds justice in court and detest the one who tells the truth. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times, for the times are evil. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the LORD God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16Therefore this is what the Lord, the LORD God Almighty, says: "There will be wailing in all the streets and cries of anguish in every public square. The farmers will be summoned to weep and the mourners to wail. |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17There will be wailing in all the vineyards, for I will pass through your midst," says the LORD. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD? That day will be darkness, not light. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him. |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, not light-- pitch-dark, without a ray of brightness? |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21"I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25"Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26You have lifted up the shrine of your king, the pedestal of your idols, the star of your god -- which you made for yourselves. |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is God Almighty. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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