# verses

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Their tents and their flocks shall they take away; they shall take for themselves their curtains and all their vessels and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, `Fear is on every side!' 


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Flee, get you far off! Dwell deep, O you inhabitants of Hazor," says the LORD. "For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you. 


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"Arise, get you up unto the wealyour nation, that dwells without cares," says the LORD, "which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone. 


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And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil; and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof," says the LORD. 


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"And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever; there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it." 


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Judgment on Elam<br/>The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, 


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And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come. 


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For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies and before them that seek their life; and I will bring evil upon them, even My fierce anger,' says the LORD; `and I will send the sword after them till I have consumed them. 


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And I will set My throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes,' says the LORD. 


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"`But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring back the captives of Elam,' says the LORD." 


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Prophecy <n>(Judgment)</n> Against Babylon and Babylonia <br/>The word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet:


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"Declare you among the nations, and proclaim and set up a standard; proclaim and conceal not. Say, `Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces! Her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces!' 


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For out of the north there comes  up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein; they shall be removed, they shall depart, both man and beast. 


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"In those days and in that time," says the LORD, "the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall go, and seek the LORD their God . 


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They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces turned thitherward, saying, `Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.' 


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My people has been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.


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All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, `We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.' 


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"depart out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the hegoats before the flocks. 


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For lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall set themselves in array against her. From thence she shall be taken. Their arrows shall be as of a mighty destroyer; none shall return in vain. 


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"Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, O you destroyers of Mine heritage, because you are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls, 


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your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bore you shall be ashamed. Behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert. 


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Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate; everyone that goes by Babylon shall be astonished and hiss at all her plagues. 


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Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about; all you that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD. 


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Shout against her round about; she has given her hand. Her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of the LORD. Take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do unto her. 


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Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest; for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land. 


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"Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria has devoured him, and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones." 


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Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. 


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And I will bring Israel again to his habitation; and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead. 


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In those days and in that time," says the LORD, "the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve. 


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"Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Waste and utterly destroy after them," says the LORD, "and do according to all that I have commanded you. 


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How the hammer of the whole earth is cut asunder and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!


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I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, O Babylon, and you wast not aware; you are found and also caught, because you have striven against the LORD. 


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The LORD has opened His armory and has brought forth the weapons of His indignation; for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.


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Come against her from the utmost border; open her storehouses. Cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.


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Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe unto them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation. 


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The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of His temple. 


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"Call together the archers against Babylon. All you that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape. Recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do unto her. For she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel. 


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Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day," says the LORD. 


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"Behold, I am against you, O you most proud," says the Lord GOD of hosts; "for your day is come, the time that I will visit you. 


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And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him." 


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Thus says the LORD of hosts: "The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together, and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go. 


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Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is His name. He shall thoroughly plead their cause, that He may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. 


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"A sword is upon the Chaldeans," says the LORD, "and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men! 


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A sword is upon the liars, and they shall dote! A sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed! 


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A sword is upon their horses and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her, and they shall become as women! A sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed! 


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A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up! For it is the land of graven images, and they are mad over their idols. 


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Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein; and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. 


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As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof," says the LORD, "so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein. 


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"Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the borders of the earth. 


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They shall hold the bow and the lance; they are cruel and will not show mercy; their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, everyone put in array like a man to the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon. 


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The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble; anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. 


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Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan unto the habitation of the strong; but I will make them suddenly run away from her. And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? For who is like Me? And who will appoint Me the time? And who is that shepherd that will stand before Me?" 


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Therefore hear you the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Babylon, and His purposes that He has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely He shall make their habitation desolate with them. 


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The LORD's Judgment <n>(Utter Destruction)</n> on Babylon<br/>Thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against Me, a destroying wind. 


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And will send unto Babylon winnowers that shall fan her, and shall empty her land; for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. 


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Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine; and spare you not her young men; destroy you utterly all her host. 


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Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets. 


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For Israel has not been forsaken, nor Judah by his God, by the LORD of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel." 


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Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance; He will render unto her a recompense. 


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Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. 


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Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: Howl for her! Take balm for her pain; if so be she may be healed.


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We woud have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country, for her judgment reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up even to the skies. 


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The LORD has brought forth our righteousness; come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God . 


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Make bright the arrows! Gather the shields! The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for His device is against Babylon to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of His temple. 


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Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set up the watchmen! Prepare the ambushes! For the LORD has both devised and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.


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O you that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, and the measure of your covetousness. 


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The LORD of hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, "Surely I will fill you with men, as with caterpillars, and they shall lift up a shout against you." 


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He has made the earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by His understanding. 


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When He  utters His voice there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings with rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasures. 


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Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 


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The portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of His inheritance; the LORD of Hosts is His name. 


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"You are My battleax and weapons of war; for with you will I break in pieces the nations, and with you will I destroy kingdoms. 


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And with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider.


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With you also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces old and young; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the maid.


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I will also break in pieces with you the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces captains and rulers.


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And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight," says the LORD. 


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"Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain," says the LORD, who destroyest all the earth; "and I will stretch out Mine hand upon you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain. 


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And they shall not take from you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever," says the LORD. 


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Set you up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her; call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars. 


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Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. 


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And the land shall tremble and sorrow; for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without an inhabitant. 


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The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their strongholds; their might has failed, they have become as women; they have burned her dwelling places, her bars are broken. 


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One courier shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, 


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and that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. 


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For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; it is time to thresh her; yet a little while and the time of her harvest shall come." 


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"Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel. He has swallowed me up like a dragon; he has filled his belly with my delicacies, he has cast me out. 


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The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon," shall the inhabitant of Zion say; "and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!" shall Jerusalem say. 


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Therefore thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. 


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And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabitant. 


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In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake," says the LORD. 


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"How Sheshach is taken! And how the praise of the whole earth is surprised! How Babylon has become an astonishment among the nations! 


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Her cities are a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby. 


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And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him. Yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. 


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"My people, go you out of the midst of her, and deliver you every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. 


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And lest your heart faint and you fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land--a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor and violence in the land, ruler against ruler" 


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therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. 


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Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon, for the despoilers shall come unto her from the north," says the LORD. 


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As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. 


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You that have escaped the sword, go away; stand not still. Remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. 


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We are confounded because we have heard reproach; shame has covered our faces, for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house. 


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"Therefore behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will do judgment upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan. 


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Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall despoilers come unto her," says the LORD. 


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because the LORD has despoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice. When her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered, 


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because the despoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken; everyone of their bows is broken. For the LORD God of recompenses shall surely requite. 


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"And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her captains and her rulers and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake," says the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts. 


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Thus says the LORD of hosts: "The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire; and they shall be weary." 


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The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. 


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So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. 


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And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you comest to Babylon and shall see, and shall read all these words, 


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then shall you say, `O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.' 


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And it shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates. 


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And you shall say, `Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary.'" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. 


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The Fall of Jerusalem Reviewed<br/>Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 


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For because of the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till He had cast them out from His presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 


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And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came -- he and all his army -- against Jerusalem, and encamped against it and built forts against it round about. 


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And in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. 


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Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden <n>(now the Chaldeans were by the city round about)</n>, and they went by the way of the plain. 


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But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. 


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Then they took the king and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him. 


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And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.


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Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. And the king of Babylon bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. 


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Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem. 


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And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men burned he with fire. 


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And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about.


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Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive certain of the poor of the people and the residue of the people who remained in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. 


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But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen. 


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Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke, and carried all their brass to Babylon. 


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The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away. 


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And the basins, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups -- that which was of gold in gold and that which was of silver in silver -- took the captain of the guard away. 


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The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made in the house of the LORD -- the brass of all these vessels was beyond weighing. 


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And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it, and the thickness thereof was four fingers; it was hollow. 


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And a capital of brass was upon it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capitals round about, all of brass. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like unto these. 


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And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were a hundred round about.


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The People Taken Captive to Babylonia<br/>And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door. 


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He took also out of the city a eunuch who had the charge of the men of war, and seven men from those who were near the king's person who were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host who mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city. 


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So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 


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And the king of Babylon smote them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.


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These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand Jews and three and twenty; 


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in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons;


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in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred. 


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Jehoiachin Released from Prison<br/>And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him forth out of prison; 


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and he spoke kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, 


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and changed his prison garments. And Jehoiachin continually ate bread before him all the days of his life.


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And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life. 


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Jerusalem in Affliction; The Sorrows of Captive Zion<br/>How does the city sit solitary that was full of people! How she has become as a widow! She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces, how she has become tributary! 


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She weepeth sorely in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies. 


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Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude. She dwells among the heathen, she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtook her in her straits. 


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The highways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts; all her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. 


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Her adversaries are the master, her enemies prosper; for the LORD has afflicted her. For the multitude of her transgressions, her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. 


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And from the daughter of Zion, all her beauty is departed; her princes have become like harts that find no pasture, and they have gone without strength before the pursuer. 


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Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy and none did help her, the adversaries saw her, and mocked at her Sabbaths. 


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Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she has become a wanderer. All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness; yea, she sigheth, and turns backward. 


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Her filthiness is in her skirts; she  remembers not her last end. Therefore she came down wondrously; she had no comforter. "O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself!" 


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The adversary has spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things; for she has seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom You did command that they should not enter into Your congregation. 


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All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. "See, O LORD, and consider, for I have become vile." 


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"Is it nothing to you, all you that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD has afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. 


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From above has He sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet, He has turned me back; He has made me desolate and faint all the day. 


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The yoke of my transgressions is bound up by His hand; they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck. He has made my strength to fall; the Lord has delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. 


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The Lord has trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me; He has called an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a wine press. 


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For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed." 


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Zion spreads forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her. The LORD has commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him; Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. 


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"The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against His commandment. Hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow; my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. 


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I called for my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. 


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"Behold, O LORD, for I am in distress; my bowels are troubled. Mine heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad the sword bereaveth; at home there is as death. 


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They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me. All mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that You have done it! You will bring the day that You have proclaimed, and they shall then be like unto me. 


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Let all their wickedness come before You, and do unto them as You have done unto me for all my transgressions; for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint." 


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God's Anger with Jerusalem<br/>How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not His footstool in the day of His anger! 


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The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied; He has thrown down in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground; He has polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. 


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He has cut off in His fierce anger all the horn of Israel. He has drawn back His right hand from before the enemy, and He burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. 


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He has bent His bow like an enemy; He stood with His right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion; He poured out His fury like fire. 


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The Lord was as an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel, He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds, and has increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. 


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And He has violently taken away His tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; He has destroyed His places of the assembly. The LORD has caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and has despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest. 


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The Lord has cast off His altar; He has abhorred His sanctuary. He has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast. 


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The LORD has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched out a line, He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying. Therefore He made the rampare and the wall to lament; they languished together. 


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Her gates are sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles; the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.


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The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence; they have cast up dust upon their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.


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Mine eyes do fail with tears, my soul is troubled; my passion is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. 


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They say to their mothers, "Where is corn and wine?" when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom. 


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What thing shall I take to witness for you? What thing shall I liken to you, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to you, that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is great like the sea. Who can heal you? 


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Your prophets have seen vain and foolish things for you; and they have not exposed your iniquity, to return you from captivity, but have seen for you false burdens and causes of banishment. 


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All that pass by clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city that men call `The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth'?" 


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All your enemies have opened their mouth against you; they hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, "We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it." 


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The LORD has done that which He had devised; He has fulfilled His word that He had commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied; and He has caused your enemy to rejoice over you; He has set up the horn of your adversaries. 


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Their heart cried unto the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no rest; let not the apple of your eye cease. 


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Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the watches pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward Him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger on top of every street. 


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Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom You have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, their children of a span long? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? 


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The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of Your anger; You have killed and not pitied.


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You have called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained; those that I have swaddled and brought up has mine enemy consumed. 


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The Prophet's Anguish and Hope and Relief Through God's Mercy<br/>I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.


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The Degradation of Zion<br/>How the gold has become dim! How the most fine gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.


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The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how they are esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! 


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Even the seamonsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. 


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The tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask bread, and no man breaks it unto them. 


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They that fed on delicacies are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.


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For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her. 


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Her Nazirites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire. 


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Now their visage is blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaves to their bones, it is withered, it has become like a stick. 


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They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field. 


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The hands of the pitying women have sodden their own children; they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.


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The LORD has accomplished His fury; He has poured out His fierce anger, and has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has devoured the foundations thereof. 


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The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. 


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For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her, 


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they have wandered as blind men in the streets; they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments. 


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They cried unto them, "depart ye; it is unclean! Depart, depart, touch not!" When they fled away and wandered, it was said among the heathen, "They shall no more sojourn there." 


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The anger of the LORD has divided them; He will no more regard them; they respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders. 


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As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us. 


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They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets; our end is near, our days are fulfilled, for our end has come. 


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Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they pursued us upon the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness. 


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The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, "Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen." 


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Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz. The cup also shall pass through unto you; you shall be drunken and shall make yourself naked. 


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The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; He will no more carry you away into captivity. He will visit your iniquity, O daughter of Edom; He will uncover your sins. 


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A Prayer for Restoration<br/>Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us; consider, and behold our reproach. 


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Ezekiel's Vision of God's Glory<br/>Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River of Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God . 


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the word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was there upon him. 


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And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself; and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 


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Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.


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And their feet were straight feet, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass. 


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And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and all four had their faces and their wings.


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Their wings were joined one to another. They turned not when they went; they went everyone straight forward.


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As for the likeness of their faces, all four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side, and all four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. 


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Thus were their faces. And their wings were stretched upward; two wings of everyone were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. 


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And they went everyone straight forward; where the spirit was to go, they went, and they turned not when they went. 


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As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps; it went up and down among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. 


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Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold, a wheel was upon the earth by each of the living creatures with his four faces. 


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The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness; and their appearance and their work was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. 


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As for their rims, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rims were full of eyes round about the four. 


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And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 


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Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went; thither was their spirit to go: and the wheels were lifted up opposite them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 


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When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up opposite them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 


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And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures was as the color of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above. 


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And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other; everyone had two which covered on this side, and everyone had two which covered on that side of their bodies. 


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And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech as the noise of a host. When they stood, they let down their wings; 


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and there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their wings.


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And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, with the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness in appearance of a man above upon it. 


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And I saw as the color of amber, with the appearance of fire round about within it. From the appearance of His loins even upward and from the appearance of His loins even downward, I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. 


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As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of One who spoke. 


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Ezekiel Called to Be a Prophet and Sent to Rebellious Israel<br/>And He said unto me, "Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak unto you." 


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And the Spirit entered into me when He spoke unto me, and set me upon my feet, so that I heard Him who spoke unto me. 


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And He said unto me, "Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me, even unto this very day; 


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for they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I send you unto them; and you shall say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD .' 


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And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear <n>(for they are a rebellious house)</n>, yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them. 


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"And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with you and you dost dwell among scorpions. Be not afraid of their words nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. 


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And you shall speak My words unto them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, for they are most rebellious. 


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But you, son of man, hear what I say unto you. Be not you rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth, and eat what I give you." 


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And He spread it before me; and it was written within and without, and there were written therein lamentations and mourning and woe. 


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The Responsibility of the Prophet<br/>Moreover He said unto me, "Son of man, eat what you findest: eat this scroll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel." 


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And He said unto me, "Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you." Then did I eat it, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness. 


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And He said unto me, "Son of man, go, get you unto the house of Israel, and speak with My words unto them. 


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For you are not sent to a people of strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel, 


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not to many people of strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you canst not understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have hearkened unto you. 


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But the house of Israel will not hearken unto you, for they will not hearken unto Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted. 


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Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. 


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As an adamant, harder than flint, have I made your forehead. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house." 


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Moreover He said unto me, "Son of man, all My words that I shall speak unto you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. 


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And go, get you to those of the captivity, unto the children of your people, and speak unto them and tell them, `Thus says the Lord GOD ,' whether they will hear or whether they will forbear." 


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Then the Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, "Blessed be the glory of the LORD from His place." 


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I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels opposite them, and a noise of a great rushing. 


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So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me. 


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Then I came to those of the captivity at Telabib, who dwelt by the River of Chebar; and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days. 


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Ezekiel Is a Watchman<br/>And it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word out of My mouth, and give them warning from Me. 


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When I say unto the wicked, `You shall surely die,' and you give him not warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand. 


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Yet if you warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. 


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Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand. 


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Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he is warned; also you have delivered your soul." 


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And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and He said unto me, "Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you." 


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Then I arose and went forth into the plain, and behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the River of Chebar; and I fell on my face. 


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Then the Spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet, and spoke with me and said unto me, "Go, shut yourself within your house. 


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But you, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon you and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them. 


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And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be dumb and shall not be to them a reprover, for they are a rebellious house. 


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But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD .' He that heartth, let him hear; and he that forbears, let him forbear; for they are a rebellious house. 


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The Siege of Jerusalem Illustrated <n>(Portrayed)</n><br/>"You also, son of man, take you a tile and lay it before you, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem; 


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and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mound against it. Set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. 


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Moreover take you unto you an iron plate, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city; and set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. 


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"Also lie you upon your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that you shall lie upon it, you shall bear their iniquity. 


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For I have laid upon you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so shall you bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 


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And when you have accomplished them, lie again on your right side, and you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed you each day for a year. 


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Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; and your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. 


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And behold, I will lay bands upon you, and you shall not turn you from one side to another until you have ended the days of your siege. 


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"Take you also unto you wheat and barley and beans, and lentils and millet and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make you bread thereof according to the number of the days that you shall lie upon your side; three hundred and ninety days shall you eat thereof. 


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And your meat which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time shall you eat it. 


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And you shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it with dung that comes  out of man in their sight." 


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And the LORD said, "Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them." 


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Then said I, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth." 


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Then He said unto me, "Lo, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread therewith." 


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Moreover He said unto me, "Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread by weight and with care, and they shall drink water by measure and with astonishment, 


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that they may lack bread and water, and be stunned one with another, and be consumed away for their iniquity. 


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A Sword Against Jerusalem<br/>"And you, son of man, take you a sharp knife, take you a barber's razor and cause it to pass over your head and upon your beard. Then take you balances to weigh and divide the hair. 


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You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a third part and smite about it with a knife, and a third part you shall scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. 


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Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. 


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"Thus says the Lord GOD : This is Jerusalem. I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. 


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And she has changed My judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and My statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for they have refused My judgments and My statutes. They have not walked in them. 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Because you multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in My statutes, neither have kept My judgments, neither have done according to the judgments of the nations that are round about you, 


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therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold I, even I, am against you, and will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations. 


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And I will do in you that which I have not done, and the like of which I will not do any more, because of all your abominations. 


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Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in you, and the whole remnant of you will I scatter into all the winds. 


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"Therefore as I live, says the Lord GOD, surely because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore will I also diminish you; neither shall Mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. 


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A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. 


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Thus shall Mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted; and they shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it in My zeal when I have accomplished My fury upon them. 


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"Moreover I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are round about you, in the sight of all that pass by. 


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So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments upon you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken it. 


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When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you, and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread, 


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so will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, the LORD, have spoken it." 


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and say: `You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. 


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And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 


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And I will lay the dead carcAsses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars.


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In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 


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"`Yet will I leave a remnant, that you may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations when you shall be scattered through the countries. 


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And they that escape from among you shall remember Me among the nations where they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart which has departed from Me, and with their eyes which go a whoring after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. 


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And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them. 


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : Smite with your hand and stamp with your foot, and say: "Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel!" For they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. 


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He that is far off shall die of the pestilence, and he that is near shall fall by the sword, and he that remains and is besieged shall die by the famine; thus will I accomplish My fury upon them. 


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Then shall you know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they offered sweet savor to all their idols. 


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So will I stretch out My hand upon them and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations; and they shall know that I am the LORD.'" 


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"Also, you son of man, thus says the Lord GOD unto the land of Israel: "An end! The end is come upon the four corners of the land. 


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Now is the end come upon you, and I will send Mine anger upon you, and will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense upon you all your abominations. 


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And Mine eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will recompense your ways upon you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the LORD. 


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The morning is come unto you, O you that dwellest in the land; the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains. 


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Now will I shortly pour out My fury upon you, and accomplish Mine anger upon you; and I will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense you for all your abominations. 


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And Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity. I will recompense you according to your ways and your abominations that are in the midst of you; and you shall know that I am the LORD that smiteth. 


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"Behold the day, behold, it is come! The morning is gone forth, the rod has blossomed, pride has budded. 


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Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs; neither shall there be wailing for them. 


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The time is come, the day draws near. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. 


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For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive; for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life. 


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"They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goes to the battle, for My wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. 


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The sword is without, and the pestilence and the famine within. He that is in the field shall die with the sword, and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him. 


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But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, everyone for his iniquity. 


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They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. 


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They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels, because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity. 


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"As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein; therefore have I set it far from them. 


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And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they shall pollute it. 


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My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute My secret place; for the robbers shall enter into it and defile it. 


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Therefore I will bring the worst of the heathen, and they shall possess their houses. I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled. 


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Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor. Then shall they seek a vision of the prophet, but the law shall perish from the priest and counsel from the ancients. 


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The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do unto them according to their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the LORD." 


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A Vision of Evil <n>(Abominations)</n> in the Temple<br/>And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. 


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Then I beheld, and lo, a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of His loins even downward, fire, and from His loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber. 


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And He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looks toward the north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. 


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And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. 


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Then said He unto me, "Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north." So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and beheld northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. 


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He said furthermore unto me, "Son of man, see you what they do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, that I should depart far off from My sanctuary? But turn you yet again, and you shall see greater abominations." 


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Then said He unto me, "Son of man, dig now in the wall"; and when I had dug in the wall, behold, a door. 


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So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things and abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about. 


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And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. 


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Then said He unto me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his images? For they say, `The LORD see us not. The LORD has forsaken the earth.'" 


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Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD's house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. 


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Then said He unto me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn you yet again, and you shall see greater abominations than these." 


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And He brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east. 


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Then He said unto me, "Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence and have returned to provoke Me to anger; and lo, they put the branch to their nose. 


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Therefore will I also deal in fury. Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in Mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them." 


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Vision of the Slaughter <n>(Slain)</n> of the Guilty <n>(Wicked)</n><br/>He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, "Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand." 


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And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lies toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. And they went in and stood beside the brazen altar. 


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And the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer's inkhorn by his side; 


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and the LORD said unto him, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and who cry because of all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof." 


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And to the others He said in mine hearing, "Go you after him through the city and smite. Let not your eye spare, neither have you pity. 


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Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary." Then they began with the elder men who were before the house. 


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And He said unto them, "Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go you forth." And they went forth and slew in the city. 


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And it came to pass, while they were slaying them and I was left, that I fell upon my face and cried, and said, "Ah Lord GOD! Will You destroy all the residue of Israel in Your pouring out of Your fury upon Jerusalem?" 


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Then said He unto me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood and the city full of perverseness; for they say, `The LORD has forsaken the earth, and the LORD see not.' 


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And as for Me also, Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their ways upon their heads." 


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And behold, the man clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, "I have done as You have commanded me." 


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The Glory God Departs from the Temple<br/>Then I looked, and behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them, as it were, a sapphire stone with the appearance of the likeness of a throne. 


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And He spoke unto the man clothed with linen, and said, "Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill your hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city." And he went in in my sight. 


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Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court.


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Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD's glory. 


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And the sound of the cherubims' wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when He speaks. 


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And it came to pass that when He had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, "Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubims," then he went in and stood beside the wheels. 


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And one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims, and took thereof and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen, who took it and went out. 


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And when I looked, behold, the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of a beryl stone. 


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And as for their appearance, all four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel. 


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When they went, they went upon their four sides. They turned not as they went, but to the place where the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. 


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And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about -- even the wheels that the four had. 


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And everyone had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. 


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And when the cherubims went, the wheels went alongside them; and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them. 


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When they stood, these stood, and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also; for the spirit of the living creature was in them. 


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Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubims.


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And the cherubims lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and everyone stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over above them. 


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This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the River of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims.


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Everyone had four faces apiece, and everyone four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. 


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And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I saw by the River of Chebar, their appearances and themselves. They went everyone straight forward. 


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Judgment on Wicked Counselors and God Will Restore Israel<br/>Moreover the Spirit lifted me up and brought me unto the east gate of the LORD's house, which looks eastward; and behold, at the door of the gate five and twenty men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. 


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Then said He unto me: "Son of man, these are the men who devise mischief and give wicked counsel in this city, 


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And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, "Speak! Thus says the LORD: Thus have you said, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind, everyone of them. 


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You have multiplied your slain in this city, and you have filled the streets thereof with the slain. 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the flesh, and this city is the caldron; but I will bring you forth out of the midst of it. 


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And I will bring you out of the midst thereof, and deliver you into the hands of strangers and will execute judgments among you. 


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You shall fall by the sword; I will judge you in the border of Israel; and you shall know that I am the LORD.


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This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall you be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border of Israel. 


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And you shall know that I am the LORD; for you have not walked in My statutes, neither executed My judgments, but have done according to the manner of the heathen who are round about you." 


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And it came to pass when I prophesied, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then fell I down upon my face, and cried with a loud voice and said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Will You make a full end of the remnant of Israel?" 


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"Son of man, your brethren, even your brethren, the men of your kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, `Get you far from the LORD; unto us is this land given as a possession.' 


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Therefore say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.' 


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Therefore say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.' 


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And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. 


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And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, 


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that they may walk in My statutes and keep Mine ordinances, and do them. And they shall be My people, and I will be their God . 


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But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, says the Lord GOD ." 


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Then the cherubims lifted up their wings, and the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. 


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And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.


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Afterwards the Spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea to those of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. 


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Judah's Captivity Illustrated <n>(Portrayed)</n><br/>The word of the LORD also came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, you dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see and see not; they have ears to hear and hear not, for they are a rebellious house. 


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Therefore, you son of man, prepare you supplies for departure, and remove by day in their sight; and you shall remove from your place to another place in their sight. It may be they will consider, though they are a rebellious house. 


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Then shall you bring forth your goods by day in their sight, as supplies for removing; and you shall go forth at evening in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity. 


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In their sight shall you bear it upon your shoulders and carry it forth in the twilight. You shall cover your face, that you see not the ground; for I have set you for a sign unto the house of Israel." 


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And I did so as I was commanded: I brought forth my goods by day, as supplies for captivity, and in the evening I dug through the wall with mine hand. I brought them forth in the twilight, and I bore them upon my shoulder in their sight. 


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Say you unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : This burden concerneth the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel that are among them.' 


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Say, `I am your sign: as I have done, so shall it be done unto them. They shall remove and go into captivity.' 


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And the prince who is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth; they shall dig through the wall to carry out through it. He shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes. 


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My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there. 


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And I will scatter toward every wind all who are about him to help him, and all his troops; and I will draw out the sword after them. 


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And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall scatter them among the nations and disperse them in the countries. 


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But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine and from the pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen where they come; and they shall know that I am the LORD." 


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and say unto the people of the land, `Thus says the Lord GOD of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel: They shall eat their bread with sorrow, and drink their water with dismay, that her land may be desolate of all that is therein, because of the violence of all them that dwell therein. 


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And the cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" 


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"Son of man, what is that proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, `The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth'? 


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Tell them therefore, `Thus says the Lord GOD : I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel.' But say unto them, `The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision. 


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For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more put off. For in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word and will perform it, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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"Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, `The vision that he see is for many days to come, and he prophesies of the times that are far off.' 


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Therefore say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : There shall none of My words be put off any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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Woe to Foolish <n>(False)</n> Prophets, Condemned<br/>And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say you unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts: `Hear you the word of the LORD! 


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Thus says the Lord GOD : Woe unto the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! 


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You have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the LORD. 


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They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, "The LORD says," but the LORD has not sent them; and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. 


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Have you not seen a vain vision and have you not spoken a lying divination, wherein you say, "The LORD says it," albeit I have not spoken? 


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"`Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Because you have spoken vanity and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord GOD . 


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And Mine hand shall be upon the prophets who see vanity and who divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD . 


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"`Because, even because they have seduced My people, saying, "Peace," and there was no peace, and one built up a wall, and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar, 


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say unto those who daub it with untempered mortar that it shall fall. There shall be an overflowing shower, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend it. 


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Lo, when the wall has fallen, shall it not be said unto you, "Where is the daubing wherewith you have daubed it?" 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : I will even rend it with a stormy wind in My fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in Mine anger and great hailstones in My fury to consume it.


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So will I break down the wall that you have daubed with untempered mortar and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be uncovered, and it shall fall and you shall be consumed in the midst thereof; and you shall know that I am the LORD. 


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Thus will I accomplish My wrath upon the wall and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar, and will say unto you: "The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it, 


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to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her and there is no peace, says the Lord GOD ."' 


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"Likewise, you son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy you against them 


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and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Woe to the women who sew pillows to all armholes and make kerchiefs upon the head of those of every stature to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of My people, and will you save the souls alive who come unto you? 


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And will you pollute Me among My people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls who should not die and to save the souls alive that should not live, by your lying to My people who hear your lies? 


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"`Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I am against your pillows, wherewith you there hunt the souls to make them fly; and I will tear them from your arms and will let the souls go, even the souls whom you hunt to make them fly. 


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Your kerchiefs also will I tear and deliver My people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and you shall know that I am the LORD. 


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Because with lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way by promising him life, 


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therefore you shall see no more vanity nor divine divinations; for I will deliver My people out of your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" 


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Idolatry Will Be Punished <n>(Judgments)</n> on Jerusalem<br/>Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me and sat before me.


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"Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them? 


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Therefore speak unto them and say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Every man of the house of Israel that sets up his idols in his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes  to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him that comes  according to the multitude of his idols, 


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that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from Me through their idols.' 


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"Therefore say unto the house of Israel, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 


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For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourns in Israel, who separates himself from Me and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes  to a prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I the LORD will answer him by Myself. 


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And I will set My face against that man and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of My people; and you shall know that I am the LORD. 


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And if the prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. 


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And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity. The punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeks unto him, 


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that the house of Israel may go no more astray from Me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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"Son of man, when the land sins against Me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out Mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it. 


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Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, says the Lord GOD . 


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If I cause noisome beasts to pass through the land, and they spoil it so that it be desolate, that no man may pass through because of the beasts, 


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though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters. They only shall be delivered, but the land shall be desolate. 


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Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, `Sword, go through the land,' so that I cut off man and beast from it, 


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though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only shall be delivered themselves. 


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Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury upon it in blood to cut off from it man and beast, 


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though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter. They shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. 


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"For thus says the Lord GOD : How much more when I send My four sore judgments upon Jerusalem -- the sword and the famine and the noisome beast and the pestilence -- to cut off from it man and beast? 


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Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters. Behold, they shall come forth unto you, and you shall see their way and their doings; and you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it. 


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And they shall comfort you, when you see their ways and their doings; and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord GOD ." 


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"Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? 


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Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take a peg from it to hang any vessel thereon?


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Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the middle of it is burned. Is it meet for any work? 


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Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work. How much less shall it be meet yet for any work when the fire has devoured it and it is burned? 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : As the vine tree among the trees of the forest which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 


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And I will set My face against them: they shall go out from one fire, and another fire shall devour them. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I set My face against them. 


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God's Love for Jerusalem and Her Unfaithfulness<br/>Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem: Your birth and your nativity are of the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 


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And as for your nativity, on the day you wast born your navel was not cut, neither wast you washed in water to soothe you. You wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. 


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No eye pitied you to do any of these unto you, to have compassion upon you; but you wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of your person on the day that you wast born. 


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"`And when I passed by you and saw you polluted in your own blood, I said unto you when you wast in your blood, "Live"; yea, I said unto you when you wast in your blood, "Live." 


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I have caused you to multiply as the bud of the field, and you have increased and waxed great, and you are come to excellent ornaments. Your breasts are fashioned and your hair is grown, whereas you wast naked and bare. 


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"`Now when I passed by you and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. Yea, I swore unto you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you becamest Mine. 


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Then washed I you with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you with oil. 


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I clothed you also with embroidered work and shod you with badgers' skin, and I girded you about with fine linen, and I covered you with silk. 


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And I put a jewel on your forehead, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. 


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Thus wast you decked with gold and silver, and your raiment was of fine linen and silk and embroidered work. You did eat fine flour and honey and oil; and you wast exceeding beautiful, and you did prosper into a kingdom. 


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And your renown went forth among the heathen for your beauty; for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put upon you, says the Lord GOD . 


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Jerusalem's Harlotry<br/>"`But you did trust in your own beauty, and played the harlot because of your renown, and poured out your fornications on everyone that passed by: his it was. 


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And of your garments you did take, and decked your high places with divers colors and played the harlot thereupon. The like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. 


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You have also taken your fair jewels of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men and did commit whoredom with them, 


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and tookest your embroidered garments and covered them; and you have set Mine oil and Mine incense before them.


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My meat also which I gave you -- fine flour and oil and honey, wherewith I fed you -- you have even set it before them for a sweet savor; and thus it was, says the Lord GOD . 


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Moreover you have taken your sons and your daughters, whom you have borne unto Me, and these have you sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this your whoredoms a small matter, 


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And in all your abominations and your whoredoms you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you wast naked and bare and wast polluted in your blood. 


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You have built your high place at every head of the way, and have made your beauty to be abhorred, and have opened your feet to everyone that passed by, and multiplied your whoredoms. 


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You have also committed fornication with the Egyptians your neighbors, great of flesh, and have increased your whoredoms to provoke Me to anger. 


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Behold, therefore I have stretched out My hand over you, and have diminished your ordinary food, and delivered you unto the will of them that hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way. 


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You have played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you wast unsatiable; yea, you have played the harlot with them and yet couldest not be satisfied. 


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You have moreover multiplied your fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea, and yet you wast not satisfied herewith. 


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Jerusalem's Adultery<br/>"`How weak is your heart, says the Lord GOD, seeing you do all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman, 


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in that you buildest your eminent place at the head of every way and makest your high place in every street, and have not been as a harlot in that you scornest hire, 


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Gifts are given to all whores, but you give your gifts to all your lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto you on every side for your whoredom. 


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And it is the contrary in you from other women in your whoredoms, whereas none followes you to commit whoredoms; and in that you give a reward and no reward is given unto you, therefore you are contrary. 


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Thus says the Lord GOD : Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your whoredoms with your lovers, and with all the idols of your abominations, and by the blood of your children which you did give unto them, 


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behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers with whom you have taken pleasure, and all them that you have loved, with all them that you have hated. I will even gather them round about against you and will uncover your nakedness unto them, that they may see all your nakedness. 


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And I will judge you, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give you blood in fury and jealousy. 


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And I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your eminent place and shall break down your high places. They shall strip you also of your clothes and shall take your fair jewels, and leave you naked and bare. 


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They shall also bring up a company against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. 


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And they shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women; and I will cause you to cease from playing the harlot, and you also shall give no hire any more. 


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So will I make My fury toward you to rest, and My jealousy shall depart from you, and I will be quiet and will be no more angry. 


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Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have made Me fret in all these things, behold, therefore I also will recompense your way upon your head, says the Lord GOD; and you shall not commit this lewdness above all your abominations. 


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More Wicked than Samaria and Sodom<br/>"`Behold, everyone that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against you, saying, "As is the mother, so is her daughter." 


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You are your mother's daughter, who loatheth her husband and her children, and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 


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And your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters, who dwell at your left hand; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. 


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Yet have you not walked after their ways, nor done according to their abominations, but, as if that were a very little thing, you wast corrupted more than they in all your ways. 


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As I live, says the Lord GOD, Sodom your sister has not done, she nor her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters. 


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Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy; 


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and they were haughty and committed abomination before Me. Therefore I took them away as I saw good.


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Neither has Samaria committed half of your sins; but you have multiplied your abominations more than they, and have justified your sisters in all your abominations which you have done. 


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You also, who have judged your sisters, bear your own shame for your sins that you have committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than you. Yea, be you confounded also and bear your shame, in that you have justified your sisters. 


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"`When I shall bring back their captives, the captives of Sodom and her daughters and the captives of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring back the captivity of your captives in the midst of them, 


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that you may bear your own shame and may be confounded in all that you have done, in that you are a comfort unto them. 


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When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then you and your daughters shall return to your former estate. 


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before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of your reproach of the daughters of Syria and all who are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you round about. 


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"`For thus says the Lord GOD : I will even deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant. 


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An Everlasting Covenant<br/>Nevertheless I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish unto you an everlasting covenant. 


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Then you shall remember your ways and be ashamed when you shall receive your sisters, your elder and your younger; and I will give them unto you for daughters, but not by your covenant. 


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that you may remember and be confounded and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers which had divers colors, came unto Lebanon and took the highest branch of the cedar. 


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He cropped off the top of it young twigs and carried it into a land of traffic; he set it in a city of merchants.


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He took also of the seed of the land and planted it in a fruitful field. He placed it by great waters and set it as a willow tree.


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And it grew and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him and the roots thereof were under him. So it became a vine, and brought forth branches and shot forth sprigs. 


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"`There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers; and behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her planting. 


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It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.' 


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Say you, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Shall it prosper? Shall he not pull up the roots thereof and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? It shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof. 


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Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither when the east wind touchs it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew.'" 


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"Say now to the rebellious house: `Know you not what these things mean?' Tell them: `Behold, the king of Babylon is come to Jerusalem, and has taken the king thereof and the princes thereof, and led them with him to Babylon; 


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and has taken of the king's seed and made a covenant with him, and has taken an oath from him. He has also taken the mighty of the land, 


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that the kingdom might be base, that it might not lift itself up, but that by keeping of his covenant it might stand. 


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But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and many people. Shall he prosper? Shall he escape that does such things? Or shall he break the covenant and be delivered? 


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As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king dwells that made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, even with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die. 


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Neither shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war, by casting up siege mounds and building forts to cut off many persons. 


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Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when, lo, he had given his hand and has done all these things, he shall not escape. 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : As I live, surely Mine oath that he has despised and My covenant that he has broken, even it will I recompense upon his own head. 


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And I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare, and I will bring him to Babylon and will plead with him there for his trespass that he has trespassed against Me. 


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And all his fugitives with all his troops shall fall by the sword, and they that remain shall be scattered toward all winds; and you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken it. 


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Israel Exalted at Last<br/>"`Thus says the Lord GOD : I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon a high mountain and eminent. 


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In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it; and it shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit and be a goodly cedar, and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell. 


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And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree, have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish. I, the LORD, have spoken and have done it.'" 


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"What mean you, that you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: `The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'? 


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The Soul That Sins Shall Die<br/>Behold, all souls are Mine. As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sins, it shall die. 


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and has not eaten upon the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither has defiled his neighbor's wife, neither has come near to a menstruous woman, 


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and has not oppressed any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has despoiled none by violence, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment; 


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he that has not given forth upon usury, neither has taken any increase, that has withdrawn his hand from iniquity, has executed true judgment between man and man, 


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has walked in My statutes and has kept My judgments to deal truly -- he is just: he shall surely live, says the Lord GOD . 


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"If he beget a son who is a robber, a shedder of blood, and who does the like to any one of these things, 


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and who does not any of those duties, but even has eaten upon the mountains and defiled his neighbor's wife, 


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has oppressed the poor and needy, has despoiled by violence, has not restored the pledge and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination, 


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has given forth upon usury and has taken increase -- shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations: he shall surely die. His blood shall be upon him.


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"Now, lo, if he beget a son who see all his father's sins which he has done, and considereth and does not the like, 


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who has not eaten upon the mountains, neither has lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, has not defiled his neighbor's wife, 


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neither has oppressed any, has not withheld the pledge, neither has despoiled by violence, but has given his bread to the hungry and has covered the naked with a garment; 


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who has taken off his hand from the poor, who has not received usury nor increase, has executed My judgments, has walked in My statutes -- he shall not die for the iniquity of his father: he shall surely live. 


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As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, despoiled his brother by violence, and did that which is not good among his people, lo, even he shall die in his iniquity. 


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Turn and Live<br/>"Yet say you, `Why? Does not the son bear the iniquity of the father?' When the son has done that which is lawful and right, and has kept all My statutes and has done them, he shall surely live. 


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The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. 


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But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed and keep all My statutes and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live: he shall not die. 


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All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him. In his righteousness that he has done he shall live. 


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"Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, says the Lord GOD, and not that he should return from his ways and live? 


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But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All his righteousness that he has done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he has trespassed and in his sin that he has sinned, in them shall he die. 


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"Yet you say, `The way of the Lord is not equal.' Hear now, O house of Israel: Is not My way equal? Are not your ways unequal? 


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When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity and dies in it, for his iniquity that he has done shall he die. 


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Again, when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. 


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Because he considereth and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live: he shall not die. 


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Yet says the house of Israel, `The way of the Lord is not equal.' O house of Israel, are not My ways equal? Are not your ways unequal? 


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"Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 


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Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel? 


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For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says the Lord GOD. Therefore turn yourselves, and live ye. 


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and say: "`What is your mother? A lioness: she lay down among lions; she nourished her whelps among young lions. 


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And she brought up one of her whelps; it became a young lion, and it learned to catch the prey; it devoured men. 


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The nations also heard of him; he was taken in their pit, and they brought him with chains unto the land of Egypt. 


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Now when she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, then she took another of her whelps, and made him a young lion. 


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And he went up and down among the lions; he became a young lion, and learned to catch the prey and devoured men. 


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And he knew their desolate palaces, and he laid waste their cities; and the land was desolate and the fullness thereof by the noise of his roaring. 


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Then the nations set against him on every side from the provinces, and spread their net over him; he was taken in their pit. 


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And they put him under guard in chains, and brought him to the king of Babylon. They brought him into prison, that his voice should no more be heard upon the mountains of Israel. 


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"`Your mother is like a vine in your likeness, planted by the waters; she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. 


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And she had strong rods for the scepters of them that bore rule; and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches. 


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But she was plucked up in fury; she was cast down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit. Her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them. 


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And fire has gone out from a rod of her branches, which has devoured her fruit, so that she has no strong rod to be a scepter to rule.' This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation." 


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The History of Rebellious Israel<br/>And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of the LORD, and sat before me. 


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"Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel and say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you.' 


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Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers; 


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and say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : On the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up Mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up Mine hand unto them, saying, "I am the LORD your God "-- 


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on the day that I lifted up Mine hand unto them to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, 


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then said I unto them: "Cast away every man of you the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God ." 


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But they rebelled against Me and would not hearken unto Me. They did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt. "`Then I said, "I will pour out My fury upon them, to accomplish My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt." 


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But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known unto them in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. 


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And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them. 


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Moreover also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctify them. 


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But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They walked not in My statutes and they despised My judgments, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; and My Sabbaths they greatly polluted. "`Then I said I would pour out My fury upon them in the wilderness to consume them. 


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But I wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out. 


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Yet also I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, 


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because they despised My judgments and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. 


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Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying them, neither did I make an end of them in the wilderness. 


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"`But I said unto their children in the wilderness: "Walk you not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. 


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and hallow My Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God ." 


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Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against Me. They walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My Sabbaths. "`Then I said I would pour out My fury upon them to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness. 


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Nevertheless I withdrew Mine hand and wrought for My name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth. 


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I lifted up Mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen and disperse them through the countries, 


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because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes and had polluted My Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers' idols. 


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and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all who opens the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the LORD.' 


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"Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel and say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me. 


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For when I had brought them into the land for which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There also they made their sweet savor, and poured out there their drink offerings. 


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Then I said unto them: What is the high place whereunto you go?'" <n>(And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.)</n> 


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"Therefore say unto the house of Israel, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Are you polluted after the manner of your fathers? And commit you whoredom after their abominations? 


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For when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be inquired of by you. 


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"`And that which comes  into your mind shall not be at all: in that you say, "We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone." 


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God Will Restore Israel<br/>"`As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm and with fury poured out, will I rule over you. 


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And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out; 


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and I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face. 


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As I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, says the Lord GOD . 


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and I will purge out from among you the rebels and them that transgress against Me. I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the LORD. 


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"`As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD : Go you, serve you everyone his idols, and hereafter also, if you will not hearken unto Me; but pollute you My holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols. 


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For in Mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, says the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve Me. There will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things. 


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I will accept you with your sweet savor when I bring you out from the people and gather you out of the countries wherein you have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.


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And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to your fathers. 


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And there shall you remember your ways and all your doings wherein you have been defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.


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And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for My name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O you house of Israel, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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"Son of man, set your face toward the south, and drop your word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the southland. 


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And say to the forest of the south: `Hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it shall devour every green tree in you and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. 


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Babylon, The Sword of the LORD <n>(Word of God)</n><br/>And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop your word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel; 


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and say to the land of Israel, `Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth My sword out of his sheath and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. 


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Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north, 


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that all flesh may know that I, the LORD, have drawn forth My sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.' 


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Sigh therefore, you son of man, with the breaking of your loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes. 


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And it shall be, when they say unto you, `Why sighest you?' that you shall answer, `For the tidings, because it cometh; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water.' Behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, says the Lord GOD ." 


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"Son of man, prophesy and say, `Thus says the LORD. Say: "`A sword, a sword is sharpened and also furbished! 


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It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter. Should we then make mirth? It contemneth the rod of My son, as every tree. 


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"`And he has given it to be furbished, that it may be handled; this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished to give it into the hand of the slayer. 


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Cry and howl, son of man! For it shall be upon My people; it shall be upon all the princes of Israel. Terrors by reason of the sword shall be upon My people; smite therefore upon your thigh. 


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Because it is a trial, and what if the sword contemn even the rod? It shall be no more, says the Lord GOD .' 


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"You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain. It is the sword of the great men that are slain, which enters into their secret chambers. 


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I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint and their ruins be multiplied. Ah! It is made bright; it is sharpened for the slaughter. 


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I will also smite Mine hands together, and I will cause My fury to rest. I, the LORD, have said it." 


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"Also, you son of man, appoint you two ways that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; both shall come forth out of one land. And choose you a place; choose it at the head of the way to the city. 


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Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbah of the Ammonites and to Judah in Jerusalem, the fortified. 


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For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked at the liver. 


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At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem: to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a siege mound, and to build a fort. 


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And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths; but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken. 


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"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : `Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear -- because, I say, that you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken with the hand. 


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thus says the Lord GOD : "`Remove the diadem and take off the crown; this shall not be the same. Exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high; 


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I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. And it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it to Him.' 


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A Sword Against the Ammonites<br/>"And you, son of man, prophesy and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach; even say you: "`The sword, the sword is drawn; for the slaughter it is furbished to consume because of the glittering" 


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while they see vanity unto you, while they divine a lie unto you, to bring you upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked whose day is come when their iniquity shall have an end. 


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Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge you in the place where you wast created, in the land of your nativity. 


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And I will pour out Mine indignation upon you; I will blow against you in the fire of My wrath, and deliver you into the hand of brutish men, and skillful to destroy. 


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You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land. You shall be no more remembered; for I the LORD have spoken it.'" 


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"Now, you son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Yea, you shall show her all her abominations. 


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Then say you, `Thus says the Lord GOD : The city sheds blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. 


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You are become guilty in your blood that you have shed, and have defiled yourself in your idols which you have made; and you have caused your days to draw near, and are come even unto your years. Therefore have I made you a reproach unto the heathen and a mocking to all countries. 


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Those that are near and those that are far from you shall mock you, who are infamous and much vexed. 


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In you have they made light of father and mother. In the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the stranger. In you have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.


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In you are men that carry tales to shed blood, and in you they eat upon the mountains. In the midst of you they commit lewdness. 


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In you have they uncovered their fathers' nakedness. In you have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.


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And one has committed abomination with his neighbor's wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another in you has humbled his sister, his father's daughter. 


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In you have they taken gifts to shed blood. You have taken usury and increase, and you have greedily gained from your neighbors by extortion, and have forgotten Me, says the Lord GOD . 


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"`Behold, therefore I have smitten Mine hand at your dishonest gain which you have made and at your blood which has been in the midst of you. 


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Can your heart endure or can your hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken it, and will do it. 


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And I will scatter you among the heathen and disperse you in the countries, and will consume your filthiness out of you. 


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And you shall take your inheritance in yourself in the sight of the heathen, and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" 


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"Son of man, the house of Israel has to Me become dross. All they are brass and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace; they are even the dross of silver. 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : `Because you have all become dross, behold, therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 


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As they gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace, to blow the fire upon it to melt it, so will I gather you in Mine anger and in My fury, and I will leave you there and melt you. 


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Yea, I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst thereof. 


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As silver is melted in the midst of the furnace, so shall you be melted in the midst thereof; and you shall know that I, the LORD, have poured out My fury upon you.'" 


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"Son of man, say unto her: `You are the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation.' 


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There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. 


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Her priests have violated My law and have profaned Mine holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shown difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 


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Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. 


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And her prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar, seeing vanity and divining lies unto them, saying, `Thus says the Lord GOD ,' when the LORD has not spoken. 


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The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. 


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And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. 


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Therefore have I poured out Mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath. Their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, says the Lord GOD ." 


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and they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth. There were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. 


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And the names of them were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister; and they were Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names: Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem, Oholibah. 


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The Older Sister, Samaria<br/>"And Oholah played the harlot when she was Mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, 


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who were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. 


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Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria and with all on whom she doted. With all their idols she defiled herself. 


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Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity and poured their whoredom upon her. 


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Therefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. 


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These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters and slew her with the sword; and she became notorious among women, for they had executed judgment upon her. 


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The Younger Sister, Jerusalem<br/>"And when her sister Oholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. 


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She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. 


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and that she increased her whoredoms. For when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, 


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girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, in the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity-- 


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and as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. 


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And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. 


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So she uncovered her whoredoms and uncovered her nakedness. Then My mind was alienated from her, as My mind was alienated from her sister. 


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Yet she multiplied her whoredoms in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 


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For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of Asses and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 


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Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth, in bruising your teats by the Egyptians for the paps of your youth." 


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Judgment on Jerusalem<br/>"Therefore, O Oholibah, thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you from whom your mind is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: 


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the Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, all of them desirable young men, captains and rulers, great lords and renowned, all of them riding upon horses. 


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And they shall come against you with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, who shall set against you buckler and shield and helmet round about; and I will set judgment before them, and they shall judge you according to their judgments. 


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And I will set My jealousy against you, and they shall deal furiously with you. They shall take away your nose and your ears, and your remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take your sons and your daughters, and your residue shall be devoured by the fire. 


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Thus will I make your lewdness to cease from you and your whoredom brought from the land of Egypt, so that you shall not lift up your eyes unto them, nor remember Egypt any more. 


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For thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of those whom you hatest, into the hand of those from whom your mind is alienated. 


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And they shall deal with you hatefully, and shall take away all your labor and shall leave you naked and bare; and the nakedness of your whoredoms shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your whoredoms. 


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I will do these things unto you, because you have gone a whoring after the heathen, and because you are polluted with their idols. 


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"Thus says the Lord GOD : "You shall drink of your sister's cup deep and large; you shall be laughed to scorn and held in derision; it containeth much. 


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You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of dismay and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria. 


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You shall even drink it and suck it out, and you shall break the shards thereof, and pluck off your own breasts. For I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD . 


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"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your whoredoms." 


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Both Sisters Judged<br/>The LORD said moreover unto me: "Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Yea, declare unto them their abominations, 


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that they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; and with their idols have they committed adultery and have also caused their sons, whom they bore unto Me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them. 


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Moreover this they have done unto Me: They have defiled My sanctuary on the same day and have profaned My Sabbaths.


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For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into My sanctuary to profane it; and lo, thus have they done in the midst of Mine house. 


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And furthermore, you have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and lo, they came, for whom you did wash yourself, painted your eyes, and decked yourself with ornaments, 


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and sattest upon a stately bed, and a table prepared before it, whereupon you have set Mine incense and Mine oil. 


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And a voice of a multitude being at ease was with her; and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness, who put bracelets upon their hands and beautiful crowns upon their heads. 


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"Then said I unto her that was old in adulteries: `Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she with them?' 


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Yet they went in unto her, as they go in unto a woman that plays the harlot; so went they in unto Oholah and unto Oholibah, the lewd women. 


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And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses and after the manner of women that shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is in their hands. 


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"For thus says the Lord GOD : I will bring up a company upon them, and will give them to be removed and despoiled. 


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And the company shall stone them with stones and dispatch them with their swords. They shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. 


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Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do according to your lewdness. 


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And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you, and you shall bear the sins of your idols; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD ." 


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The Parable <n>(Symbol)</n> of the Boiling <n>(Cooking)</n> Pot<br/>Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, write you the name of the day, even of this same day: The king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day. 


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And utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Set on a pot, set it on, and also pour water into it. 


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Gather the pieces thereof into it, even every good piece -- the thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with the choice bones. 


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Take the choice of the flock, and burn also the bones under it; and make it boil well, and let them boil the bones of it therein. 


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"`Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is therein and whose scum is not gone out of it! Bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it. 


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For her blood is in the midst of her; she set it upon the top of a rock; she poured it not upon the ground, to cover it with dust. 


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That it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance, I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered. 


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"`Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Woe to the bloody city! I will even make the pile for fire great. 


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Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot and may burn, and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed. 


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She has wearied herself with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her; her scum shall be in the fire. 


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In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have purged you and you wast not purged, you shall not be purged from your filthiness any more, till I have caused My fury to rest upon you. 


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I, the LORD, have spoken it: it shall come to pass, and I will do it. I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent. According to your ways and according to your doings shall they judge you, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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"Son of man, behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke; yet neither shall you mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down. 


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Forbear to cry. Make no mourning for the dead. Bind the attire of your head upon you, and put on your shoes upon your feet, and cover not your lips, and eat not the bread of men." 


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So I spoke unto the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded. 


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Speak unto the house of Israel, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will profane My sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom you have left shall fall by the sword. 


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And your attires shall be upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet. You shall not mourn nor weep, but you shall pine away for your iniquities and mourn one toward another. 


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Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign: according to all that he has done shall you do. And when this cometh, you shall know that I am the Lord GOD .' 


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"Also, you son of man, shall it not be on the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters, 


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On that day shall your mouth be opened to him who has escaped, and you shall speak and be no more dumb. And you shall be a sign unto them, and they shall know that I am the LORD." 


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Proclamation <n>(Prophecies)</n> Against Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines<br/>The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 


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and say unto the Ammonites, `Hear the word of the Lord GOD. Thus says the Lord GOD : Because you saidst, "Aha," against My sanctuary when it was profaned, and against the land of Israel when it was desolate, and against the house of Judah when they went into captivity, 


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behold, therefore I will deliver you to the men of the East as a possession; and they shall set their palaces in you and make their dwellings in you. They shall eat your fruit, and they shall drink your milk. 


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And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels and Ammon a couching place for flocks; and you shall know that I am the LORD.


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For thus says the Lord GOD : Because you have clapped your hands and stamped with the feet and rejoiced in heart with all your contemptuous hate against the land of Israel, 


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behold, therefore I will stretch out Mine hand upon you and will deliver you as spoil to the heathen; and I will cut you off from the people, and I will cause you to perish out of the countries. I will destroy you, and you shall know that I am the LORD.' 


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Proclamation Against Moab<br/>"Thus says the Lord GOD : `Because Moab and Seir do say, "Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen," 


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therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country -- Bethjeshimoth, Baalmeon, and Kiriathaim-- 


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unto the men of the East with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations. 


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Proclamation Against Edom<br/>"Thus says the Lord GOD : `Because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended and revenged himself upon them, 


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therefore thus says the Lord GOD : I will also stretch out Mine hand upon Edom and will cut off man and beast from it, and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword. 


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And I will lay My vengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to Mine anger and according to My fury; and they shall know My vengeance, says the Lord GOD .' 


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Proclamation Against Philistia<br/>"Thus says the Lord GOD : `Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge and have taken vengeance with a scornful heart to destroy it for the old hatred, fore when d hatred, 


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therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will stretch out Mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. 


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And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay My vengeance upon them.'" 


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Proclamation <n>(Prophecy)</n> Against Tyre<br/>And it came to pass in the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, `Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people; she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste,' 


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therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I am against you, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against you, as the sea causes his waves to come up. 


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And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. 


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It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea, for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD; and it shall become a spoil to the nations. 


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And her daughters who are in the field shall be slain by the sword; and they shall know that I am the LORD.


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"For thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will bring upon Tyre Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings from the north, with horses and with chariots and with horsemen and companies, and many people. 


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He shall slay with the sword your daughters in the field; and he shall make a fort against you, and cast a siege mound against you, and lift up the buckler against you. 


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And he shall set engines of war against your walls, and with his axes he shall break down your towers. 


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By reason of the abundance of his horses, their dust shall cover you. Your walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen and of the wheels and of the chariots when he shall enter into your gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. 


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With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all your streets. He shall slay your people by the sword, and your strong garrisons shall go down to the ground. 


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And they shall make a spoil of your riches and make a prey of your merchandise; and they shall break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses; and they shall lay your stones and your timber and your dust in the midst of the water.


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And I will cause the noise of your songs to cease, and the sound of your harps shall be no more heard. 


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And I will make you like the top of a rock; you shall be a place to spread nets upon. You shall be built no more; for I the LORD have spoken it, says the Lord GOD . 


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"Thus says the Lord GOD to Tyre: Shall not the isles shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of you? 


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Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes and put off their embroidered garments. They shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment and be astonished at you. 


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And they shall take up a lamentation for you and say to you: "`How are you destroyed, that wast inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, which wast strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, who cause their terror to be on all that haunt it! 


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Now shall the isles tremble in the day of your fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at your departure.' 


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"For thus says the Lord GOD : When I shall make you a desolate city like the cities that are not inhabited, when I shall bring up the deep upon you and great waters shall cover you, 


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when I shall bring you down with them that descend into the pit with the people of olden times, and shall set you in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old with them that go down to the pit, that you be not inhabited, and I shall set glory in the land of the living" 


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I will make you a terror, and you shall be no more. Though you be sought for, yet shall you never be found again, says the Lord GOD ." 


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and say unto Tyre, `O you that are situate at the entry of the sea, who are a merchant of the people for many isles, thus says the Lord GOD : "`O Tyre, you have said, "I am of perfect beauty." 


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They have made all your ship boards of fir trees of Senir; they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for you.


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Of the oaks of Bashan have they made your oars; the company of the Ashurites have made your benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Cyprus. 


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Fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt was that which you spreadest forth to be your sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered you.


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The inhabitants of Sidon and Arvad were your mariners; your wise men, O Tyre, that were in you, were your pilots. 


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The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in you your caulkers; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in you to trade for your merchandise.


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"`They of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in your army, your men of war. They hanged the shield and helmet in you; they set forth your comeliness. 


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The men of Arvad with your army were upon your walls round about, and the Gammadims were in your towers. They hanged their shields upon your walls round about; they have made your beauty perfect. 


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"`Tarshish was your merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in your fairs. 


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Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were your merchants; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in your market. 


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The men of Dedan were your merchants; many isles were the merchandise of your hand; they brought you for a present horns of ivory and ebony.


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Syria was your merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of your making; they traded in your fairs with emeralds, purple, and embroidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate. 


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Judah and the land of Israel, they were your merchants; they traded in your market wheat of Minnith, and pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm. 


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Damascus was your merchant in the multitude of the wares of your making, for the multitude of all riches, in the wine of Helbon and white wool. 


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Dan also and Javan, going to and fro, traded in your fairs; bright iron, cassia, and calamus were in your market. 


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Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they traded with you in lambs and rams and goats; in these were they your merchants. 


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The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were your merchants; they traded in your fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. 


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These were your merchants in all sorts of things--in blue clothes, and embroidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar, among your merchandise. 


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The ships of Tarshish did sing of you in your market, and you wast replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas. 


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Your rowers have brought you into great waters; the east wind has broken you in the midst of the seas.


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Your riches and your fairs, your merchandise, your mariners, and your pilots, your caulkers, and the traders of your merchandise, and all your men of war that are in you, and in all your company which is in the midst of you shall fall into the midst of the seas in the day of your ruin. 


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And all that handle the oar, the mariners, and all the pilots of the sea shall come down from their ships; they shall stand upon the land, 


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and shall cause their voice to be heard against you, and shall cry bitterly and shall cast up dust upon their heads; they shall wallow themselves in the ashes. 


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And they shall make themselves utterly bald for you, and gird themselves with sackcloth, and they shall weep for you with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. 


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And in their wailing they shall take up a lamentation for you and lament over you, saying, "What city is like Tyre, like the destroyed in the midst of the sea?" 


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When your wares went forth out of the seas, you filled many people; you did enrich the kings of the earth with the multitude of your riches and of your merchandise. 


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In the time when you shall be broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, your merchandise and all your company in the midst of you shall fall. 


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All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at you, and their kings shall be sore afraid; they shall be troubled in their countenance. 


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The merchants among the people shall hiss at you; you shall be a terror, and never shall be any more.'" 


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Proclamation Against the King of Tyre <n>(Satan)</n> and The Prince of Tyre <n>(AntiChrist)</n> Rebuked<br/>The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, `Thus says the Lord GOD : "`Because your heart is lifted up and you have said, "I am a God, I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas," yet you are a man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God . 


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With your wisdom and with your understanding you have gotten you riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasuries. 


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By your great wisdom and by your traffic have you increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches. 


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behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness. 


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They shall bring you down to the pit, and you shall die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 


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Will you yet say before him that slays you, "I am God "? But you shall be a man, and no God in the hand of him that slays you. 


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You shall die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers; for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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"Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say unto him, `Thus says the Lord GOD : "`You sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 


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You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold; the workmanship of your taborets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you wast created. 


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You are the anointed cherub that covers, and I have set you so; you wast upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 


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By the multitude of your merchandise they have filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned; therefore I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 


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Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness. I will cast you to the ground; I will lay you before kings, that they may behold you. 


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You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your traffic. Therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of you; it shall devour you; and I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold you. 


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All they that know you among the people shall be astonished at you; you shall be a terror, and never shall you be any more.'" 


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and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : "`Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will be glorified in the midst of you; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall have executed judgments in her and shall be sanctified in her. 


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For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the LORD. 


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And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all who are round about them, who despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD . 


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Israel's Future Blessing<br/>"`Thus says the Lord GOD : When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to My servant Jacob. 


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And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God .'" 


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The Proclamation <n>(Prophecy)</n> Against Egypt<br/>In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. 


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Speak, and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : "`Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers, which has said, "My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself." 


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But I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick unto your scales; and I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers, and all the fish of your rivers shall stick unto your scales. 


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And I will leave you thrown into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers; you shall fall upon the open fields. You shall not be brought together, nor gathered. I have given you for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. 


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And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. 


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When they took hold of you by your hand, you did break and rend all their shoulder; and when they leaned upon you, you brokest and made all their loins to be at a halt. 


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"`Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will bring a sword upon you, and cut off man and beast out of you. 


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And the land of Egypt shall be desolate and waste; and they shall know that I am the LORD, because he has said, "The river is mine, and I have made it." 


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"`Behold, therefore I am against you and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, from the tower of Syene even unto the border of Ethiopia. 


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No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years. 


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And I will make the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be desolate forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and will disperse them through the countries. 


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"`Yet thus says the Lord GOD : At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the people where they were scattered. 


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And I will bring back the captives of Egypt and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation, and they shall be there a base kingdom. 


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It shall be the least of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations; for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations. 


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Babylonia Will Plunder Egypt<br/>And it shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel which brings their iniquity to remembrance when they shall look after them; but they shall know that I am the Lord GOD .'" 


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And it came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a hard service against Tyre: every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled; yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre for the service that he had served against it. 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall take her multitude, and take her spoil, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. 


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I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor for which he served against it, because they wrought for Me, says the Lord GOD . 


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"In that day will I cause the horn of the house of Israel to bud forth, and I will give you the opening of the mouth in the midst of them; and they shall know that I am the LORD." 


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For the day is near; even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen. 


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And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and great pain shall be in Ethiopia when the slain shall fall in Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down. 


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Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the men of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. 


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"`Thus says the LORD: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall, and the pride of her power shall come down; from the tower of Syene shall they fall in it by the sword, says the Lord GOD . 


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And they shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. 


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And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and when all her helpers shall be destroyed. 


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"`In that day shall messengers go forth from Me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt; for lo, it cometh. 


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. 


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He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain. 


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And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land waste and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers. I, the LORD, have spoken it. 


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause their images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt, and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. 


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And I will set fire in Egypt; Sin shall have great pain, and No shall be rent asunder, and Noph shall have distresses daily. 


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The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these cities shall go into captivity.


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At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her. As for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. 


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Proclamation Against Pharaoh<br/>Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt; and they shall know that I am the LORD.'" 


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And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put on a bandage to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword. 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 


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And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword in his hand; but I will break Pharaoh's arms, and he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly wounded man. 


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But I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down. And they shall know that I am the LORD when I shall put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out upon the land of Egypt. 


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And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries; and they shall know that I am the LORD." 


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Prophecy Against Pharaoh; Egypt Cut Down Like a Great Tree<br/>And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude: "`Whom are you like in your greatness? 


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Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. 


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The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. 


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Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters when he shot forth. 


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All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young; and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. 


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Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches, for his root was by great waters. 


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The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches, nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. 


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I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him. 


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"`Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Because you have lifted up yourself in height, and he has shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height, 


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I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen. He shall surely deal with him. I have driven him out for his wickedness.


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And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off and have left him. Upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow and have left him. 


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Upon his ruin shall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches, 


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to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height--all that drink water. For they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit. 


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : In the day when he went down to the grave I caused a mourning. I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. 


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I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to hell with them that descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, shall be comforted in the nether parts of the earth. 


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They also went down into hell with him unto them that are slain with the sword, and they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the heathen. 


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To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet shall you be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth. You shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword. "`This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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Lamentation <n>(Mourning)</n> for Pharaoh and Egypt<br/>And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say unto him, "`You are like a young lion of the nations, and you are as a whale in the seas; and you camest forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet and fouled their rivers. 


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : I will therefore spread out My net over you with a company of many people; and they shall bring you up in My net. 


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Then will I leave you upon the land; I will cast you forth upon the open field and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon you, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with you. 


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I will also water with your blood the land wherein you swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of you. 


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And when I shall put you out, I will cover the heaven and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. 


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All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over you, and set darkness upon your land, says the Lord GOD . 


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"`I will also vex the hearts of many people when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. 


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Yea, I will make many people amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you when I shall brandish My sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall. 


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by the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them. And they shall despoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. 


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I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them. 


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When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD.' 


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"This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her. The daughters of the nations shall lament her; they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, says the Lord GOD ." 


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Egypt and Others Consigned to the Pit<br/>It came to pass also in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt and cast them down, even her and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth with them that go down into the pit. 


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They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword. She is delivered to the sword; draw her and all her multitudes.


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The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: `They are gone down; they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.' 


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"Assyria is there and all her company; his graves are about him, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, 


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whose graves are set in the sides of the pit and her company is round about her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living. 


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"There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit. 


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They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude. Her graves are round about him, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword. Though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit. He is put in the midst of them that are slain. 


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"There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude. Her graves are round about him, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living. 


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And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to hell with their weapons of war; and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. 


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Yea, you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with them that are slain with the sword. 


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"There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword. They shall lie with the uncircumcised and with them that go down to the pit. 


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"There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain. With their terror they are ashamed of their might, and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit. 


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"Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, says the Lord GOD . 


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For I have caused My terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord GOD ." 


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The Watchman and His Message; God's Dealings Are Just<br/>Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say unto them: `When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man from their borders and set him as their watchman, and 


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then whosoever hears the sound of the trumpet and takes not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 


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He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning: his blood shall be upon him. But he that takes warning shall deliver his soul.


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But if the watchman see the sword come and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.' 


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"So you, O son of man, I have set you as a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore you shall hear the word at My mouth and warn them from Me. 


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When I say unto the wicked, `O wicked man, you shall surely die,' if you dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand 


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Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. 


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"Therefore, O you son of man, speak unto the house of Israel: `Thus you speak, saying, "If our transgressions and our sins be upon us and we pine away in them, how should we then live?"' 


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Say unto them: `As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?' 


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The Fairness of God's Judgment<br/>Therefore, you son of man, say unto the children of your people: `The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. As for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness, neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.' 


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When I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live, if he trust to his own righteousness and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he has committed, he shall die for it. 


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Again, when I say unto the wicked, `You shall surely die,' if he turn from his sin and do that which is lawful and right, 


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if the wicked restore the pledge, give back that which he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 


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None of his sins that he has committed shall be mentioned unto him. He has done that which is lawful and right: he shall surely live.


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"Yet the children of your people say, `The way of the Lord is not equal.' But as for them, their way is not equal. 


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But if the wicked turn from his wickedness and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby. 


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Yet you say, `The way of the Lord is not equal.' O you house of Israel, I will judge you everyone according to his ways." 


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The Fall of Jerusalem<br/>And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, "The city is smitten!" 


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Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening before he that had escaped came, and He had opened my mouth until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb. 


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"Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes in the land of Israel speak, saying, `Abraham was one, and he inherited the land. But we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.' 


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Therefore say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : You eat meat with the blood, and lift up your eyes toward your idols, and shed blood. And shall you possess the land? 


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You stand upon your sword, you work abomination, and you defile everyone his neighbor's wife. And shall you possess the land?' 


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Say you thus unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : As I live, surely they that are in the wastes shall fall by the sword, and him that is in the open field will I give to the beasts to be devoured, and they that are in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence. 


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For I will lay the land most desolate, and the pomp of her strength shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, that none shall pass through. 


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Then shall they know that I am the LORD, when I have laid the land most desolate because of all their abominations which they have committed.' 


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Hearing and Not Doing<br/>"Also, you son of man, the children of your people still are talking against you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, `Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that comes  forth from the LORD.' 


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And they come unto you as the people cometh, and they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they will not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness. 


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And lo, you are unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do them not. 


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And when this comes  to pass -- lo, it will come -- then shall they know that a prophet has been among them." 


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God the True Shepherd and Irresponsible Shepherds<br/>And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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"Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD unto the shepherds: Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? 


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You eat the fat, and you clothe yourselves with the wool, you kill the ones that are fed; but you feed not the flock. 


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The diseased have you not strengthened, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither have you bound up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them. 


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And they were scattered because there is no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. 


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My sheep wandered through all the mountains and upon every high hill; yea, My flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. 


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As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely because My flock became a prey and My flock became meat to every beast of the field because there was no shepherd, neither did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and fed not My flock, 


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Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My flock at their hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more. For I will deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. 


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God, the True Shepherd<br/>"`For thus says the Lord GOD : Behold I, even I, will both search My sheep and seek them out. 


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As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out My sheep and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered on the cloudy and dark day. 


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And I will bring them out from the people and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers and in all the inhabited places of the country. 


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I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be; there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. 


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I will seek that which was lost and bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken and will strengthen that which was sick. But I will destroy the fat and the strong: I will feed them with judgment. 


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"`And as for you, O My flock, thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the hegoats. 


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Seemeth it a small thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pastures? And to have drunk of the deep waters, but you must foul the residue with your feet? 


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And as for My flock, they eat that which you have trodden with your feet, and they drink that which you have fouled with your feet. 


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"`Therefore thus says the Lord GOD unto them: Behold I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and between the lean cattle. 


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Because you have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns till you have scattered them abroad, 


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therefore will I save My flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle. 


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And I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My servant David. He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd. 


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And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them. I, the LORD, have spoken it. 


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"`And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. 


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And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing, and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. 


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And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land and shall know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves by them. 


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And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. 


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And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. 


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Thus shall they know that I, the LORD their God, am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are My people, says the Lord GOD . 


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Prophecy <n>(Judgment)</n> Against Mount Seir<br/>Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 


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and say unto it, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against you, and I will stretch out Mine hand against you, and I will make you most desolate. 


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Because you have had a perpetual hatred and have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end, 


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therefore, as I live, says the LORD God, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you. Since you have not hated blood, even blood shall pursue you. 


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Thus will I make Mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passes out and him that returneth. 


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And I will fill his mountains with his slain men; in your hills and in your valleys and in all your rivers shall they fall that are slain with the sword.


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I will make you perpetual desolations, and your cities shall not return; and you shall know that I am the LORD. 


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"`Because you have said, "These two nations and these two countries shall be mine and we will possess it," though the LORD was there, 


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therefore, as I live, says the Lord GOD, I will even do according to your anger and according to your envy which you have used out of your hatred against them; and I will make Myself known among them when I have judged you. 


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And you shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all your blasphemies which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, "They are laid desolate. They are given us to consume." 


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Thus with your mouth you have boasted against Me and have multiplied your words against Me; I have heard them.


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As you did rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I do unto you. You shall be desolate, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am the LORD.'" 


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Blessing on Israel; A New Heart and a New Spirit<br/>"Also, you son of man, prophesy unto the mountains of Israel and say, `You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD. 


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Thus says the Lord GOD : Because the enemy has said against you, "Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession,"' 


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therefore prophesy and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Because they have made you desolate and swallowed you up on every side, that you might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and you are taken up on the lips of talkers and are an infamy of the people, 


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therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about" 


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therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Surely in the fire of My jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen and against all Edom, who have appointed My land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out as a prey.' 


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Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and in My fury, because you have borne the shame of the heathen. 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : I have lifted up Mine hand. Surely the heathen who are about you, they shall bear their shame. 


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"`But you, O mountains of Israel, you shall shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit to My people of Israel, for they are at hand to come. 


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And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it; and the cities shall be inhabited and the wastes shall be built. 


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And I will multiply upon you man and beast, and they shall increase and bring fruit. And I will settle you according to your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings; and you shall know that I am the LORD. 


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Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even My people Israel; and they shall possess you and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no more henceforth bereave them of men. 


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Thus says the Lord GOD : Because they say unto you, "You, land, devourest up men and have bereaved your nations," 


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Neither will I cause men to hear in you the shame of the heathen any more, neither shall you bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shall you cause your nations to fall any more, says the Lord GOD .'" 


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"Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings; their way was before Me as the uncleanness of a removed woman. 


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Therefore I poured My fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it.


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And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries; according to their way and according to their doings I judged them. 


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And when they entered unto the heathen where they went, they profaned My holy name, when they said to them, `These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of His land.' 


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But I had pity for Mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen where they went. 


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"Therefore say unto the house of Israel, `Thus says the Lord GOD : I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the heathen where you went. 


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And I will sanctify My great name which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 


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For I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 


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"`Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean; from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. 


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A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 


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And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments and do them. 


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And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be My people, and I will be your God . 


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"`I will also save you from all your uncleannesses; and I will call for the corn and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 


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And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, that you shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. 


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Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good, and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 


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Not for your sakes do I this, says the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel! 


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be rebuilt. 


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And they shall say, "This land that was desolate has become like the Garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities have become fortified and are inhabited." 


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Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I, the LORD, build the ruined places and plant that which was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it.' 


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"Thus says the Lord GOD : I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them with men like a flock. 


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As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men; and they shall know that I am the LORD." 


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The Valley of Dry Bones <n>(Live)</n><br/>The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, 


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and caused me to pass by them round about; and behold, there were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. 


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Again He said unto me, "Prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, `O you dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 


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Thus says the Lord GOD unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. 


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And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD.'" 


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So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 


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And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. 


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Then said He unto me, "Prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.'" 


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So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 


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Then He said unto me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, `Our bones are dried and our hope is lost. We are cut off from our parts.' 


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Therefore prophesy and say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 


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And you shall know that I am the LORD when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up out of your graves, 


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and shall put My Spirit in you and you shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then shall you know that I, the LORD, have spoken it and performed it, says the LORD.'" 


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"Moreover, you son of man, take you one stick and write upon it, `For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.' Then take another stick and write upon it, `For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.' 


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And when the children of your people shall speak unto you, saying, `Will you not show us what you mean by these?' 


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say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in Mine hand.' 


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"And say unto them, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen where they have gone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land. 


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And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one King shall be King to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. 


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Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned and will cleanse them. So shall they be My people, and I will be their God . 


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"`And David My servant shall be King over them, and they all shall have one Shepherd. They shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes, and do them. 


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And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children and their children's children for ever. And My servant David shall be their Prince for ever. 


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Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 


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And the heathen shall know that I, the LORD, do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.'" 


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"Son of man, set your face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him 


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and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 


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And I will turn you back and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords; 


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Gomer and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters and all his bands -- and many people with you.


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"`Be you prepared and prepare for yourself, you and all your company that are assembled unto you, and be you a guard unto them. 


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After many days you shall be visited. In the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste; but it is brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell safely, all of them. 


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You shall ascend and come like a storm. You shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your troops, and many people with you. 


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : It shall also come to pass that at the same time shall things come into your mind, and you shall think an evil thought; 


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and you shall say, "I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates"-- 


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to take a spoil and to take a prey, to turn your hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited and upon the people who are gathered out of the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. 


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Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto you, "Are you come to despoil us? Have you gathered your company to take a prey, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?"' 


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"Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, `Thus says the Lord GOD : On that day when My people of Israel dwells safely, shall you not know it? 


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And you shall come from your place out of the north parts, you and many people with you, all of them riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army. 


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And you shall come up against My people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land. It shall be in the latter days; and I will bring you against My land, that the heathen may know Me when I shall be sanctified in you, O Gog, before their eyes. 


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : Are you he of whom I have spoken in old times by My servants the prophets of Israel who prophesied in those days many years that I would bring you against them? 


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Judgment on Gog<br/>And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord GOD, that My fury shall come upon My face. 


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For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken: Surely on that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel, 


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so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence; and the mountains shall be thrown down and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. 


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And I will call for a sword against him throughout all My mountains, says the Lord GOD. Every man's sword shall be against his brother. 


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And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him and upon his troops and upon the many people that are with him an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 


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Thus will I magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations; and they shall know that I am the LORD.' 


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Gog's Armies Destroyed<br/>"Therefore, you son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, `Thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 


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And I will turn you back and leave but a sixth part of you, and will cause you to come up from the north parts and will bring you upon the mountains of Israel; 


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and I will smite your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. 


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You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your forces and the people that are with you. I will give you unto the ravenous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 


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And I will send a fire on Magog and among them that dwell confidently in the isles; and they shall know that I am the LORD.


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"`So will I make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel. 


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"`And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the javelins and the spears; and they shall burn them with fire seven years, 


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so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests. For they shall burn the weapons with fire, and they shall despoil those that despoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, says the Lord GOD . 


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The Burial of Gog<br/>"`And it shall come to pass on that day that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passersby on the east of the sea; and it shall stop the noses of the passersby. And there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude; and they shall call it the Valley of Hamongog <n>(that is, The multitude of Gog)</n>. 


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Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a day of renown the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord GOD . 


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And they shall separate out men for continual employment, passing through the land, to bury with the passersby those who remain upon the face of the earth to cleanse it. At the end of seven months shall they search. 


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And the passersby who pass through the land, when any see a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamongog. 


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And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah <n>(that is, The multitude)</n>. Thus shall they cleanse the land.' 


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A Triumphant Festival<br/>"And, you son of man, thus says the Lord GOD : Speak unto every feathered fowl and to every beast of the field: `Assemble yourselves and come. Gather yourselves on every side to My sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. 


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You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 


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And you shall eat fat till you be full and drink blood till you be drunken of My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.


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Thus you shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots, with mighty men and with all men of war,' says the Lord GOD . 


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"Israel Restored to the Land<br/>And I will set My glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see My judgment that I have executed and My hand that I have laid upon them. 


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And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity. Because they trespassed against Me, therefore hid I My face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies; so fell they all by the sword. 


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According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid My face from them. 


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"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Now will I bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for My holy name 


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after they have borne their shame and all their trespAsses whereby they have trespassed against Me, when they dwelt safely in their land and none made them afraid. 


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When I have brought them back from the people and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations, 


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then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, who caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen. But I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there; 


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neither will I hide My face any more from them, for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord GOD ." 


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The Vision of the Temple and a New City<br/>In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was smitten, on the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither. 


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In the visions of God brought He me into the land of Israel and set me upon a very high mountain, by which there was, as it were, the form of a city on the south. 


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And He brought me thither, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate. 


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And the man said unto me, "Son of man, behold with your eyes and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you; for with the intent that I might show them unto you are you brought hither. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel." 


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And behold, a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by a cubit and a hand breadth. So he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed. 


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The Eastern Gateway of the Temple<br/>Then came he unto the gate which looks toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad, and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad. 


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And every little chamber was one reed long and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within was one reed.


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Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward. 


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And the little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this side and three on that side; they three were of one measure, and the posts had one measure on this side and on that side. 


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And he measured the breadth of the entry of the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits. 


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The space also before the little chambers was one cubit on this side, and the space was one cubit on that side; and the little chambers were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side. 


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He measured then the gate from the roof of one little chamber to the roof of another; the breadth was five and twenty cubits, door against door. 


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And from the face of the gate of the entrance unto the face of the porch of the inner gate were fifty cubits.


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And there were narrow windows to the little chambers, and to their posts within the gate round about and likewise to the arches; and windows were round about within; and upon each post were palm trees. 


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The Outer Court<br/>Then he brought me into the outer court, and lo, there were chambers and a pavement made for the court round about; thirty chambers were upon the pavement. 


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And the pavement by the side of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement.


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Then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower gate unto the forefront of the inner court from outside, a hundred cubits eastward and northward. 


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The Northern Gateway<br/>And the gate of the outer court that looked toward the north, he measured the length thereof and the breadth thereof. 


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And the little chambers thereof were three on this side and three on that side; and the posts thereof and the arches thereof were the same measure as the first gate; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits. 


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And their windows and their arches and their palm trees were the same measure as the gate that looks toward the east; and they went up unto it by seven steps, and the arches thereof were before them. 


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And the gate of the inner court was opposite the gate toward the north and toward the east; and he measured from gate to gate a hundred cubits.


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The Southern Gateway<br/>After that he brought me toward the south, and behold, a gate toward the south; and he measured the posts thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures. 


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And there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about like those windows; the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits. 


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And there were seven steps to go up to it, and the arches thereof were before them; and it had palm trees, one on this side and another on that side, upon the posts thereof. 


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And there was a gate in the inner court toward the south; and he measured from gate to gate toward the south a hundred cubits.


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Gateways of the Inner Court<br/>And he brought me to the inner court by the South Gate. And he measured the South Gate according to these measures, 


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and the little chambers thereof and the posts thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures. And there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about; it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad. 


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And the arches thereof were toward the outer court, and palm trees were upon the posts thereof; and the going up to it had eight steps. 


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And he brought me into the inner court toward the east; and he measured the gate according to these measures.


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And the little chambers thereof and the posts thereof and the arches thereof were according to these measures. And there were windows therein and in the arches thereof round about; it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad. 


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And the arches thereof were toward the outer court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side and on that side; and the going up to it had eight steps. 


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the little chambers thereof, the posts thereof and the arches thereof, and the windows to it round about. The length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits. 


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And the posts thereof were toward the outer court, and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side and on that side; and the going up to it had eight steps. 


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Where Sacrifices Were Prepared<br/>And the chambers and the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering. 


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And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, to slay thereon the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering. 


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And at the side outside, as one goes up to the entry of the North Gate, were two tables; and on the other side, which was at the porch of the gate, were two tables. 


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Four tables were on this side and four tables on that side by the side of the gate, eight tables upon which they slew their sacrifices. 


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And the four tables were of hewn stone for the burnt offering, of a cubit and a half long and a cubit and a half broad and one cubit high, upon which also they laid the instruments wherewith they slew the burnt offering and the sacrifice. 


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And within were hooks, a handbreadth wide, fastened round about; and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering. 


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Chambers for Singers and Priests<br/>And outside the inner gate were the chambers of the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the North Gate, and their prospect was toward the south, one at the side of the East Gate having the prospect toward the north. 


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And he said unto me, "This chamber whose prospect is toward the south is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the house. 


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And the chamber whose prospect is toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the altar; these are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, who come near to the LORD to minister unto Him." 


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Dimensions of the Inner Court and Vestibule<br/>So he measured the court, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits broad, foursquare, and the altar that was before the house. 


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And he brought me to the porch of the house and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side; and the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side and three cubits on that side. 


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The length of the porch was twenty cubits and the breadth eleven cubits; and he brought me by the steps by which they went up to it; and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side and another on that side. 


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Measurements <n>(Dimensions)</n> and Design of the Temple Area <n>(Sanctuary)</n><br/>Afterward he brought me to the temple and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tabernacle. 


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And the breadth of the door was ten cubits; and the sides of the door were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other side; and he measured the length thereof, forty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits. 


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Then went he inward and measured the post of the door, two cubits; and the door, six cubits; and the breadth of the door, seven cubits. 


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So he measured the length thereof, twenty cubits; and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple. And he said unto me, "This is the Most Holy Place." 


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The Side Chambers on the Wall<br/>After that, he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side chamber, four cubits, round about the house on every side. 


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And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which was of the house for the side chambers round about, that they might have support, but they had no support in the wall of the house. 


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And there was an enlarging and a winding about still upward to the side chambers; for the winding about of the house went still upward round about the house. Therefore the breadth of the house was still upward, and so increased from the lowe chamber to the highest by the middle chamber. 


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I saw also the height of the house round about; the foundations of the side chambers were a full reed of six great cubits.


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The thickness of the wall, which was for the side chamber outside, was five cubits; and that which was left was the place of the side chambers that were within. 


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And the doors of the side chambers were toward the place that was left, one door toward the north and another door toward the south; and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits round about. 


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The Building at the Western End<br/>Now the building fronting the separate place at the end toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick round about and the length thereof ninety cubits.


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Dimensions and Design of the Temple Area<br/>So he measured the house, a hundred cubits long; and the separate place and the building with the walls thereof, a hundred cubits long; 


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also the breadth of the face of the house and of the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits. 


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And he measured the length of the building opposite the separate place which was behind it, and the galleries thereof on the one side and on the other side, a hundred cubits, with the inner temple and the porches of the court, 


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the doorposts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries round about on their three stories opposite the door, ceiled with wood round about, and from the ground up to the windows <n>(and the windows were covered)</n>, 


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to the space above the door, even unto the inner house and outside, and by all the wall round about within and without, by measure. 


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And it was made with cherubims and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub; and every cherub had two faces, 


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so that the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side; it was made through all the house round about. 


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From the ground unto above the door were cherubims and palm trees made, and on the wall of the temple. 


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The posts of the temple were squared, and also the face of the sanctuary; the appearance of the one as the appearance of the other. 


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The altar of wood was three cubits high and the length thereof two cubits; and the corners thereof and the length thereof and the walls thereof were of wood. And he said unto me, "This is the table that is before the LORD." 


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And the doors had two leaves apiece, two turning leaves: two leaves for the one door and two leaves for the other door. 


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And there were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubims and palm trees, as were made upon the walls; and there were thick planks upon the face of the porch outside. 


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And there were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and upon the side chambers of the house, and thick planks. 


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The Chambers for the Priests' Rooms and the Outer Measurements<br/>Then he brought me forth into the outer court, the way toward the north; and he brought me into the chamber that was opposite the separate place and which was before the building toward the north. 


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Opposite the twenty cubits which were for the inner court, and opposite the pavement which was for the outer court, was gallery upon gallery in three stories. 


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And before the chambers was a walk of ten cubits breadth inward, a way of one cubit, and their doors toward the north. 


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Now the upper chambers were shorter; for the galleries were higher than these -- than the lower and than the middlemost of the building.


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For they were in three stories, but had not pillars as the pillars of the courts; therefore the upper building was narrowed more than the lowe and the middlemost from the ground. 


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And the wall that was outside opposite the chambers, toward the outer court on the forepare of the chambers, the length thereof was fifty cubits. 


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For the length of the chambers that were in the outer court was fifty cubits; and lo, those before the temple were a hundred cubits. 


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And from under these chambers was the entry on the east side, as one goes into them from the outer court. 


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The chambers were within the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, opposite the separate place and opposite the building. 


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And the walk before them was like the appearance of the chambers which were toward the north, as long as they and as broad as they; and all their exits were both according to their fashions, and according to their doors. 


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And according to the doors of the chambers that were toward the south was a door in the head of the walk, the passage directly before the wall toward the east as one enters into them. 


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Then said he unto me, "The north chambers and the south chambers, which are in front of the separate place, they are holy chambers where the priests who approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things. There shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy. 


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When the priests enter therein, then shall they not go out of the holy place into the outer court; but there they shall lay their garments wherein they minister, for they are holy; and they shall put on other garments and shall approach those things which are for the people." 


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Outer Dimensions of the Temple<br/>Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me forth toward the gate whose prospect is toward the east, and measured it round about. 


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He measured the east side with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about. 


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He measured it on the four sides; it had a wall round about, five hundred reeds long and five hundred broad, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the profane place. 


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The Laws of the Temple, the Lord's Dwelling Place<br/>Afterward he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks toward the east. 


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And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and His voice was like a noise of many waters, and the earth shined with His glory. 


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And it was according to the appearance of the vision which I saw, even according to the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city. And the visions were like the vision that I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell upon my face. 


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And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east.


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So the Spirit took me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house. 


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And He said unto me, "Son of man, the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and My holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile, neither they nor their kings, by their whoredom nor by the carcAsses of their kings in their high places. 


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In their setting of their threshold by My thresholds, and their post by My posts, and the wall between Me and them, they have even defiled My holy name by their abominations that they have committed. Therefore I have consumed them in Mine anger. 


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Now let them put away their whoredom and the carcAsses of their kings far from Me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever. 


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"You son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. 


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And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof; and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof and all the ordinances thereof, and do them. 


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This is the law of the house: Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house. 


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Dimensions of the Altar<br/>"And these are the mesurements of the altar in cubits <n>(the cubit is a cubit and a handbreadth)</n>: even the bottom shall be a cubit and the breadth a cubit, and the border thereof by the edge thereof round about shall be a span; and this shall be the higher place of the altar. 


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And from the bottom upon the ground even to the lower ledge shall be two cubits and the breadth one cubit; and from the lesser ledge even to the greater ledge shall be four cubits and the breadth one cubit.


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And the ledge shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen broad in the four squares thereof; and the border about it shall be half a cubit, and the bottom thereof shall be a cubit about; and his stairs shall look toward the east." 


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Consecrating the Altar<br/>And He said unto me, "Son of man, thus says the Lord GOD : These are the ordinances of the altar on the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon and to sprinkle blood thereon. 


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And you shall give to the priests, the Levites who are of the seed of Zadok, who approach Me to minister unto Me, says the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a sin offering. 


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And you shall take of the blood thereof, and put it on the four horns of it and on the four corners of the ledge and upon the border round about; thus shall you cleanse and purge it. 


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You shall take the bullock also of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary. 


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And on the second day you shall offer a kid of the goats without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bullock. 


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When you have made an end of cleansing it, you shall offer a young bullock without blemish and a ram out of the flock without blemish. 


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And you shall offer them before the LORD, and the priests shall cast salt upon them, and they shall offer them up for a burnt offering unto the LORD. 


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Seven days shall you prepare every day a goat for a sin offering; they shall also prepare a young bullock and a ram out of the flock, without blemish. 


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And when these days are expired, it shall be that upon the eighth day, and so forward, the priests shall make your burnt offerings upon the altar, and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord GOD ." 


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The East Gate and the Prince and Instructions for the Priests<br/>Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outer sanctuary which looks toward the east, and it was shut. 


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Then said the LORD unto me, "This gate shall be shut. It shall not be opened and no man shall enter in by it, because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered in by it; therefore it shall be shut. 


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It is for the prince; the prince shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD. He shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate and shall go out by the way of the same." 


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Those Admitted to the Temple<br/>Then he brought me the way of the north gate before the house. And I looked, and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD; and I fell upon my face. 


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And the LORD said unto me, "Son of man, mark well, and behold with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say unto you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary. 


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And you shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, `Thus says the Lord GOD : O you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, 


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in that you have brought into My sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to pollute it, even My house, when you offer My bread, the fat and the blood; and they have broken My covenant because of all your abominations. 


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And you have not kept charge of Mine holy things; but you have set keepers of My charge in My sanctuary for yourselves.


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"`Thus says the Lord GOD : No stranger, uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary, or any stranger that is among the children of Israel. 


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Laws Governing Priests<br/>And the Levites that have gone away far from Me when Israel went astray, who went astray away from Me after their idols, they shall even bear their iniquity. 


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Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house and ministering to the house. They shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. 


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Because they ministered unto them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore have I lifted up Mine hand against them, says the Lord GOD, and they shall bear their iniquity. 


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And they shall not come near unto Me to do the office of a priest unto Me, nor to come near to any of My holy things in the Most Holy Place; but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. 


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But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house for all the service thereof and for all that shall be done therein.


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But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok that kept the charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me to minister unto Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer unto Me the fat and the blood, says the Lord GOD . 


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They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall come near to My table to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My charge. 


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And it shall come to pass that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them while they minister in the gates of the inner court and within. 


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They shall have linen headdresses upon their heads and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causes sweat.


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And when they go forth into the outer court, even into the outer court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments. 


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Neither shall they shave their heads nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only trim the hair of their heads.


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Neither shall they take for their wives a widow nor her that is put away; but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow who had a priest before. 


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And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. 


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And in controversy they shall stand in judgment, and they shall judge it according to My judgments; and they shall keep My laws and My statutes in all Mine assemblies, and they shall hallow My Sabbaths. 


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And they shall come near no dead person to defile themselves; but for father or for mother, or for son or for daughter, for brother or for sister that has had no husband, they may defile themselves. 


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And on the day that he goes into the sanctuary unto the inner court to minister in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, says the Lord GOD . 


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"`And it shall be unto them for an inheritance. I am their inheritance, and you shall give them no possession in Israel: I am their possession. 


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They shall eat the meat offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering, and every dedicated thing in Israel shall be theirs. 


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And the first of all the firstfruits of all things and every oblation of all, of every sort of your oblations, shall be the priest's. You shall also give unto the priest the first of your dough, that he may cause the blessing to rest in your house. 


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The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself or torn, whether it be fowl or beast. 


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The Prince and the Land - The Holy District<br/>"`Moreover, when you shall divide by lot the land for inheritance, you shall offer an oblation unto the LORD, a holy portion of the land. The length shall be the length of five and twenty thousand reeds, and the breadth shall be ten thousand; this shall be holy in all the borders thereof round about. 


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Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length with five hundred in breadth, square round about, and fifty cubits round about for the open places thereof. 


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And of this measure shall you measure the length of five and twenty thousand and the breadth of ten thousand; and in it shall be the sanctuary and the Most Holy Place.


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The holy portion of the land shall be for the priests, the ministers of the sanctuary, who shall come near to minister unto the LORD; and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. 


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And the five and twenty thousand of length and the ten thousand of breadth shall also the Levites, the ministers of the house, have for themselves as a possession for twenty chambers. 


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Properties of the City and the Prince<br/>"`And you shall appoint as the possession of the city five thousand broad, and five and twenty thousand long, opposite the oblation of the holy portion; it shall be for the whole house of Israel. 


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"`And a portion shall be for the prince on the one side and on the other side of the oblation of the holy portion and of the possession of the city, before the oblation of the holy portion, and before the possession of the city, from the west side westward and from the east side eastward; and the length shall be over against one of the portions, from the west border unto the east border. 


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In the land shall be his possession in Israel; and My princes shall no more oppress My people, and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes. 


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Laws Governing the Prince<br/>"`Thus says the Lord GOD : Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel. Remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice. Take away your exactions from My people, says the Lord GOD . 


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The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain a tenth part of a homer, and the ephah a tenth part of a homer; the measure thereof shall be according to the homer. 


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And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels shall be your maneh. 


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"`This is the oblation that you shall offer: a sixth part of an ephah of a homer of wheat, and you shall give a sixth part of an ephah of a homer of barley. 


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Concerning the ordinance of oil, the bath of oil, you shall offer a tenth part of a bath out of the cor, which is a homer of ten baths; for ten baths are a homer. 


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And one lamb out of the flock of two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel, for a meat offering and for a burnt offering and for peace offerings, to make reconciliation for them, says the Lord GOD . 


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And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings and meat offerings and drink offerings, in the feasts and in the new moons and in the Sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel. He shall prepare the sin offering and the meat offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings to make reconciliation for the house of Israel. 


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Keeping the Feasts<br/>"`Thus says the Lord GOD : In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bullock without blemish and cleanse the sanctuary. 


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And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house and upon the four corners of the ledge of the altar and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court. 


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And so you shall do the seventh day of the month for everyone that erreth, and for him that is simple; so shall you reconcile the house. 


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"`In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days. Unleavened bread shall be eaten. 


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And upon that day shall the prince prepare for himself and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.


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And seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD, seven bullocks and seven rams without blemish daily the seven days, and a kid of the goats daily for a sin offering. 


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And he shall prepare a meat offering of an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and a hin of oil for an ephah. 


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In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, shall he do the like at the feast of the seven days, according to the sin offering, according to the burnt offering, and according to the meat offering, and according to the oil. 


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The Manner of Worship and The Worshiping Prince<br/>"`Thus says the Lord GOD : The gate of the inner court that looks toward the east shall be shut the six working days, but on the Sabbath it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened. 


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And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate outside and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go forth, but the gate shall not be shut until the evening. 


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Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD on the Sabbaths and on the new moons.


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And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD on the Sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish.


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And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. 


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And on the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish and six lambs and a ram; they shall be without blemish.


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And he shall prepare a meat offering: an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and a hin of oil to an ephah. 


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And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof. 


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"`But when the people of the land shall come before the LORD at the solemn feasts, he that enters in by the way of the North Gate to worship shall go out by the way of the South Gate, and he that enters by the way of the South Gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate; he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth opposite it. 


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And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in, and when they go forth, shall go forth. 


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"`And at the feasts and at the solemnities, the meat offering shall be an ephah to a bullock and an ephah to a ram, and to the lambs as he is able to give, and a hin of oil to an ephah. 


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Now when the prince shall prepare a voluntary burnt offering, or peace offerings voluntarily unto the LORD, one shall then open him the gate that looks toward the east; and he shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings as he did on the Sabbath day. Then he shall go forth, and after his going forth one shall shut the gate. 


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"`You shall daily prepare a burnt offering unto the LORD of a lamb of the first year without blemish; you shall prepare it every morning. 


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And you shall prepare a meat offering for it every morning, a sixth part of an ephah and a third part of a hin of oil to temper with the fine flour -- a meat offering continually by a perpetual ordinance unto the LORD. 


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Thus shall they prepare the lamb and the meat offering and the oil every morning for a continual burnt offering.


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The Prince and Inheritance Laws<br/>"`Thus says the Lord GOD : If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons, the inheritance thereof shall be his sons'; it shall be their possession by inheritance. 


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But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; afterward it shall return to the prince. But his inheritance shall be his sons' for them. 


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Moreover the prince shall not take of the people's inheritance by oppression to thrust them out of their possession; but he shall give his sons inheritance out of his own possession, that My people be not scattered every man from his possession.'" 


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How the Offerings Were Prepared<br/>After that he brought me through the entry, which was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers of the priests which looked toward the north; and behold, there was a place on the two sides westward. 


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Then said he unto me, "This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the meat offering, that they bear them not out into the outer court, to sanctify the people." 


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Then he brought me forth into the outer court and caused me to pass by the four corners of the court; and behold, in every corner of the court there was a court. 


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In the four corners of the court there were courts joined of forty cubits long and thirty broad. These four corners were of one measure.


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And there was a row of building round about in them, round about the four, and it was made with boiling places under the rows round about. 


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Then said he unto me, "These are the places of those who boil, where the ministers of the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people." 


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The Healing Waters and Trees; The River Flowing from the Temple<br/>Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house, and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward; for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. 


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Then he brought me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way outside unto the outer gate by the way that looks eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side. 


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And when the man who had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. 


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Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. 


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Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass over; for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. 


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And he said unto me, "Son of man, have you seen this?" Then he brought me and caused me to return to the brink of the river. 


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Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. 


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Then said he unto me, "These waters issue out toward the east country and go down into the desert and go into the sea, which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. 


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And it shall come to pass that every thing that liveth, which moves, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither; for they shall be healed, and every thing shall live where the river cometh. 


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And it shall come to pass that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets. Their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the Great Sea, exceeding many. 


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But the miry places thereof and the marshes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.


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And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters issued out of the sanctuary; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat and the leaf thereof for medicine." 


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Borders of the Land<br/>Thus says the Lord GOD : "This shall be the border whereby you shall inherit the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions. 


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And you shall inherit it, one as well as another, concerning which I lifted up Mine hand to give it unto your fathers; and this land shall fall unto you for inheritance. 


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"And this shall be the border of the land: toward the north side, from the Great Sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad, 


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Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath, Hazarhatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran. 


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And the border from the sea shall be Hazarenon, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side. 


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"And the east side you shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by the Jordan, from the border unto the east sea. And this is the east side. 


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"And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the Waters of Strife in Kadesh, the river to the Great Sea. And this is the south side southward. 


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"The west side also shall be the Great Sea from the border till a man come opposite Hamath. This is the west side. 


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And it shall come to pass that you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you and to the strangers that sojourn among you, who shall beget children among you. And they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. 


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And it shall come to pass that in what tribe the stranger sojourns, there shall you give him his inheritance, says the Lord GOD . 


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The Boundaries and Divisions of the Land<br/>"Now these are the names of the tribes: From the north end to the coast of the way of Hethlon, as one goes to Hamath, Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward to the coast of Hamath; for these are his sides east and west: a portion for Dan. 


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"And by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the offering which you shall offer of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth, and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side; and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it. 


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The oblation that you shall offer unto the LORD shall be of five and twenty thousand in length, and of ten thousand in breadth. 


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And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation: toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length. And the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof. 


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It shall be for the priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who have kept My charge, who went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray. 


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And this oblation of the land that is offered shall be unto them a thing most holy by the border of the Levites.


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And opposite the border of the priests, the Levites shall have five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth; all the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand. 


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And they shall not sell any of it, neither exchange nor alienate the firstfruits of the land; for it is holy unto the LORD. 


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"And the five thousand that are left in the breadth opposite the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city, for dwelling and for suburbs; and the city shall be in the midst thereof. 


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And these shall be the measurements thereof: the north side four thousand and five hundred, and the south side four thousand and five hundred, and on the east side four thousand and five hundred, and the west side four thousand and five hundred. 


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And the suburbs of the city shall be toward the north two hundred and fifty, and toward the south two hundred and fifty, and toward the east two hundred and fifty, and toward the west two hundred and fifty. 


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And the residue in length over against the oblation of the holy portion shall be ten thousand eastward and ten thousand westward; and it shall be over against the oblation of the holy portion, and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that serve the city. 


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All the oblation shall be five and twenty thousand by five and twenty thousand. You shall offer the holy oblation foursquare, with the possession of the city. 


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"And the residue shall be for the prince, on the one side and on the other of the holy oblation, and of the possession of the city, over against the five and twenty thousand of the oblation toward the east border, and westward over against the five and twenty thousand toward the west border, over against the portions: for the prince. And it shall be the holy oblation, and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the midst thereof. 


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Moreover from the possession of the Levites and from the possession of the city which is in the midst of that which is the prince's, between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin, shall be for the prince. 


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"As for the rest of the tribes, from the east side unto the west side, Benjamin shall have a portion. 


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And by the border of Gad at the south side southward, the border shall be even from Tamar unto the Waters of Strife in Kadesh, and to the river toward the Great Sea. 


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This is the land which you shall divide by lot unto the tribes of Israel for inheritance, and these are their portions," says the Lord GOD . 


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The Gates of the City and Its Name<br/>"And these are the exits out of the city: On the north side, four thousand and five hundred measures, 


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and the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates northward: one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi. 


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And at the east side, four thousand and five hundred, and three gates: and one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan. 


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And at the south side, four thousand and five hundred measures, and three gates: one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun. 


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At the west side, four thousand and five hundred, with their three gates: one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali. 


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It was round about eighteen thousand measures. "And the name of the city from that day shall be: The LORD Is There." 


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Daniel and His Friends Obey God<br/>In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem and besieged it. 


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And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his God; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his God . 


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And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel and of the king's seed and of the princes, 


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youths in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. 


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And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat and of the wine which he drank, so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. 


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unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, Shadrach; and to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego. 


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But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. 


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And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, "I fear my lord the king, who has appointed your meat and your drink. For why should he see your faces sadder than the youths who are of your sort? Then shall you make me endanger my head before the king." 


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Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 


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"Test your servants, I beseech you, ten days, and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink. 


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Then let our countenances be looked upon before you, and the countenance of the youths who eat of the portion of the king's meat. And as you seest, deal with your servants." 


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And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the portion of the king's meat.


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Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat and the wine that they should drink, and gave them pulse. 


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As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. 


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Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 


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And the king communed with them, and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the king. 


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And in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm. 


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Daniel Explains the King Nebuchadnezzar's Dream<br/>And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep departed from him. 


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Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king. 


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And the king said unto them, "I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream." 


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Then spoke the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, "O king, live for ever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation." 


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The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, "The thing is gone from me. If you will not make known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, you shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. 


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But if you show the dream and the interpretation thereof, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. Therefore show me the dream and the interpretation thereof." 


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They answered again and said, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it." 


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The king answered and said, "I know with certainty that you would gain the time, because you see the thing is gone from me. 


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But if you will not make known unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you; for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time is changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that you can show me the interpretation thereof." 


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The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, "There is not a man upon the earth who can show the king's matter. Therefore there is no king, lord, or ruler who asked such things of any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. 


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And it is a rare thing that the king requireth, and there is no other who can show it before the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." 


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For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. 


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And the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain, and they sought Daniel and his fellows to be slain. 


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God Reveals Nebuchadnezzar's Dream<br/>Then Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. 


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He answered and said to Arioch the king's captain, "Why is the decree from the king so hasty?" Then Arioch made the thing known to Daniel. 


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Then Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the interpretation. 


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Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, 


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that they would desire mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 


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Daniel answered and said, "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. 


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And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding. 


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He reveales the deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him. 


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I thank You and praise You, O You God of my fathers, who have given me wisdom and might, and have made known unto me now what we desired of You; for You have now made known unto us the king's matter <n>(problem)</n>." 


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Daniel Explains the Dream<br/>Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him: "Destroy not the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation." 


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Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, "I have found a man of the captives of Judah, who will make known unto the king the interpretation." 


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The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?" 


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Daniel answered in the presence of the king and said, "The secret which the king has demanded, the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, and the soothsayers cannot show unto the king. 


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But there is a God in heaven who reveales secrets, and makes known to King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed are these: 


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As for you, O king, your thoughts came into your mind upon your bed, what should come to pass hereafter; and He that reveales secrets makes known to you what shall come to pass. 


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But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than anyone living, but for their sakes who shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that you might know the thoughts of your heart. 


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"You, O king, sawest; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before you; and the form thereof was terrible. 


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This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, 


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You saw until a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. 


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Then were the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. 


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You, O king, are a king of kings; for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. 


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And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven has He given into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold. 


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And after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. 


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And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and subdues all things; and as iron that breaks all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. 


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And whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it the strength of the iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. 


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And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. 


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And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. 


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And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 


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Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain and the interpretation thereof sure." 


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Daniel and His Friends Promoted<br/>Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and worshiped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet incense unto him. 


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The king answered unto Daniel and said, "In truth it is, that your God is a God of Gods and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing you couldest reveal this secret." 


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Then the king made Daniel a great man and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. 


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Then Daniel requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon; but Daniel sat in the gate of the king. 


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The Image of Gold; Daniel's Friends Saved in the Fire<br/>Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits and the breadth thereof six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. 


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Then Nebuchadnezzar the king sent to gather together the princes, the governors, and the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. 


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Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces were gathered together unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 


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that at the time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, lyre <n>(sackbut)</n>, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king has set up. 


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And whoso falls not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace." 


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Therefore at that time when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the people, the nations, and the languages fell down and worshiped the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up. 


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Daniel's Friends Disobey the King<br/>Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near and accused the Jews.


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You, O king, have made a decree that every man who shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the golden image; 


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and whoso falls not down and worshipeth, that he should be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 


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There are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have not regarded you. They serve not your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up." 


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Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then they brought these men before the king. 


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Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said unto them, "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 


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Now if you be ready so that at the time you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you fall down and worship the image which I have made, it is well; but if you worship not, you shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?" 


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Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not fear to answer you in this matter. 


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If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 


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But if not, be it known unto you, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up." 


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Saved in Fiery Trial<br/>Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Therefore he spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was wont to be heated. 


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And he commanded the most mighty men who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace. 


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Then these men were bound in their coats, their breeches, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 


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Therefore because the king's commandment was urgent and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire slew those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 


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And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 


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Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste and spoke, and said unto his counselors, "Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They answered and said unto the king, "True, O king." 


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He answered and said, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God . 


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Nebuchadnezzar Praises God<br/>Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spoke and said, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the Most High God, come forth and come hither." Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came forth from the midst of the fire. 


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And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king's counselors, being gathered together, saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was a hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed nor had the smell of fire passed onto them. 


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Then Nebuchadnezzar spoke and said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any God except their own God . 


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Therefore I make a decree that every people, nation, and language which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is no other God who can deliver in this way." 


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The King Nebuchadnezzar's Second Dream Explained<br/>"Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied unto you. 


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How great are His signs! And how mighty are His wonders! His Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation. 


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I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me. 


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Therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me, that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream. 


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Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers; and I told the dream before them, but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof. 


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But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and before him I told the dream, saying, 


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`O Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, because I know that the spirit of the holy Gods is in you and no secret troubles you, tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen and the interpretation thereof. 


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Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. 


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The tree grew and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth. 


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The leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all. The beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed from it. 


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"`I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and behold, a watcher and a holy one came down from heaven. 


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He cried aloud and said thus: "Hew down the tree and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit; let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches. 


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Nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth. 


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Let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him; and let seven times pass over him. 


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This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones, with the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will, and sets up over it the basest of men." 


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This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, O Belteshazzar, declare the interpretation thereof, inasmuch as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation; but you are able, for the spirit of the holy Gods is in you.'" 


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Daniel Explains the Second Dream<br/>Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was stunned for one hour, and his thoughts troubled him. The king spoke and said, "Belteshazzar, let not the dream or the interpretation thereof trouble you." Belteshazzar answered and said, "My lord, the dream is for those who hate you, and the interpretation thereof for your enemies. 


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The tree that you sawest, which grew and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven and the sight thereof to all the earth, 


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whose leaves were fair and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all, under which the beasts of the field dwelt and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation-- 


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it is you, O king, who are grown and become strong; for your greatness is grown and reacheth unto heaven, and your dominion to the end of the earth. 


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And whereas the king saw a watcher and a holy one coming down from heaven and saying, `Hew the tree down and destroy it, yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him'-- 


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this is the interpretation, O king, and this is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king: 


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that they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make you to eat grass as oxen; and they shall wet you with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over you till you know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will. 


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And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots, your kingdom shall be sure unto you after you shall have known that the heavens do rule. 


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Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto you; and break off your sins by righteousness and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, that it may be a lengthening of your tranquility." 


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The king spoke and said, "Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?" 


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While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, "O king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you. 


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And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field; they shall make you to eat grass as oxen. And seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will." 


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The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar; and he was driven from men, and ate grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs had grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws. 


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Nebuchadnezzar Praises God<br/>"And at the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me. And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored Him that lives for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His Kingdom is from generation to generation. 


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And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and He does according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay His hand or say unto Him, `What do Thou?' 


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At the same time my reason returned unto me; and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness returned unto me. And my counselors and my lords sought unto me; and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added unto me. 


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Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways judgment. And those that walk in pride He is able to abase." 


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Belshazzar's Feast and The Handwriting on the Wall<br/>Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. 


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Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines might drink therein. 


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Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 


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They drank wine, and praised the Gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. 


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In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote opposite the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. 


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Then the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. 


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The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spoke and said to the wise men of Babylon, "Whosoever shall read this writing and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." 


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Then came in all the king's wise men; but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. 


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Then was King Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were dismayed. 


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Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house. And the queen spoke and said, "O king, live for ever! Let not your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance be changed. 


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There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him whom King Nebuchadnezzar your father -- the king, I say, your father -- made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers. 


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Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and interpreting of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts were found in the same Daniel whom the king named Belteshazzar, now let Daniel be called and he will show the interpretation." 


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The Writing on the Wall Explained<br/>Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spoke and said unto Daniel, "Are you that Daniel who are of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry? 


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I have even heard of you that the spirit of the Gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. 


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And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing and make known unto me the interpretation thereof; but they could not show the interpretation of the thing. 


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And I have heard of you that you canst make interpretations and dissolve doubts. Now if you canst read the writing and make known to me the interpretation thereof, you shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about your neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom." 


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Then Daniel answered and said before the king, "Let your gifts be to yourself, and give your rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation. 


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O you king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom, and majesty and glory and honor. 


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And for the majesty that He gave him, all people, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him. Whomever he would he slew; and whomever he would he kept alive; and whomever he would he set up; and whomever he would he put down. 


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But when his heart was lifted up and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him. 


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And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild Asses. They fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appointeth over it whomsoever He will. 


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but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And they have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them; and you have praised the Gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not nor hear nor know. And the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways, have you not glorified. 


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Then commanded Belshazzar, and they clothed Daniel with scarlet and put a chain of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. 


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The Plot Against Daniel<br/>It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom a hundred and twenty princes, who should be over the whole kingdom; 


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and over these, three presidents, of whom Daniel was first, that the princes might give account unto them and the king should have no damage. 


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Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. 


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Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no occasion nor fault, inasmuch as he was faithful; neither was there any error or fault found in him. 


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Then said these men, "We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God ." 


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Then these presidents and princes assembled together before the king, and said thus unto him, "King Darius, live for ever! 


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All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, the counselors and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, except of you, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions. 


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Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." 


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Daniel in the Lions' Den<br/>Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he did formerly. 


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Then they came near, and spoke before the king concerning the king's decree: "Have you not signed a decree, that every man that shall ask a petition of any God or man within thirty days, except of you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?" The king answered and said, "The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not." 


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Then answered they and said before the king, "That Daniel, who is of the children of the captivity of Judah, regards not you, O king, nor the decree that you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day." 


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Then the king, when he heard these words, was sorely displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. 


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Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, "Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is: that no decree nor statute which the king establishes may be changed." 


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Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spoke and said unto Daniel, "Your God whom you servest continually, He will deliver you." 


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And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. 


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Daniel Saved from the Lions<br/>Then the king went to his palace and passed the night fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him, and his sleep went from him. 


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And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel; and the king spoke and said to Daniel, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whom you servest continually, able to deliver you from the lions?" 


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My God has sent His angel, and has shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me, inasmuch as before Him innocency was found in me; and also before you, O king, have I done no hurt." 


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Then was the king exceeding glad for him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in his God . 


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Darius Honors God<br/>And the king commanded, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions -- them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they came to the bottom of the den. 


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Then King Darius wrote unto all people, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: "Peace be multiplied unto you. 


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I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For He is the living God and steadfast for ever, and His Kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be even unto the end. 


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He delivereth and rescueth, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and in earth, who has delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." 


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Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts<br/>In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions in his head upon his bed. Then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters. 


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Daniel spoke and said, "I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. 


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The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made to stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it. 


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And behold, another beast, a second, like unto a bear. And it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it; and they said thus unto it, `Arise, devour much flesh.' 


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After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl. The beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it. 


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After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth. It devoured, and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 


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I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. 


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Vision of the Ancient of Days<br/>"I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days sat down, whose garment was white as snow and the hair of His head like the pure wool. His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. 


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A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. Thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. 


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"I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke; I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. 


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As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. 


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"I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. 


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And there was given Him dominion and glory and a Kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. 


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Daniel's Visions Interpreted<br/>"I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body, and the visions of my head troubled me. 


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I came near unto one of those who stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me and made me know the interpretation of the things: 


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But the saints of the Most High shall take the Kingdom and possess the Kingdom for ever, even forever and ever.' 


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"Then I would know the truth of the fourth beast, which was diverse from all the others, exceeding dreadful, whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass, which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet; 


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and of the ten horns that were in his head, and of the other which came up and before whom three fell, even of the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke very great things, whose look was more stout than his fellows. 


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until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the Kingdom. 


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"Thus he said: `The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down and break it in pieces. 


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And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise; and another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. 


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And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. 


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"`But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. 


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And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.' 


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"Here is the end of the matter. As for me, Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me; but I kept the matter in my heart." 


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Daniel's Vision of the Ram and Goat<br/>In the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me, Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. 


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And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai. 


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Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns; and the two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. 


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I saw the ram pushing westward and northward and southward, so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will and became great. 


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And as I was considering, behold, a hegoat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and touched not the ground; and the goat had a notable horn between his eyes. 


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And he came to the ram that had two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and ran unto him in the fury of his power. 


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And I saw him come close unto the ram, and he was moved with fury against him, and smote the ram and broke his two horns; and there was no power in the ram to stand before him, but he cast him down to the ground and stamped upon him. And there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. 


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Therefore the hegoat waxed very great; and when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and in its place came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. 


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And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land. 


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And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. 


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Yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host; and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. 


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And a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered. 


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Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint who spoke, "How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" 


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And he said unto me, "Until two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." 


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Gabriel Interprets the Vision<br/>And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision and sought for the meaning, then behold, there stood before me one with the appearance of a man. 


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And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, who called and said, "Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision." 


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So he came near where I stood. And when he came I was afraid and fell upon my face, but he said unto me, "Understand, O son of man,for at the time of the end shall be the vision." 


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Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face toward the ground; but he touched me and set me upright. 


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And he said, "Behold, I will make you know what shall be in the last end of the indignation, for at the time appointed the end shall be. 


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And the riugh goat is the king of Greece; and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.


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Now that one being broken, in whose place four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. 


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And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up. 


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And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power; and he shall destroy wondrously, and shall prosper and perform, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. 


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And through his policy also he shall cause deceit to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by using peace shall destroy many. He shall also stand up against the Prince of princes, but he shall be broken without raising a hand. 


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"And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true. Therefore shut you up the vision, for it shall be for many days." 


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And I, Daniel, fainted and was sick several days. Afterward I rose up and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it. 


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Daniel's Prayer for the People<br/>In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans" 


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in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, came to understand by books the number of the years, according to the word of the LORD as it came to Jeremiah the prophet, that He would spend seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 


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And I set my face unto the Lord GOD, seeking by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. 


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And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession and said, "O Lord, the great and fearsome God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him and to them that keep His commandments, 


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we have sinned and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly and have rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and from Your judgments. 


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Neither have we hearkened unto Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 


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O Lord, righteousness belongs unto You, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day: to the men of Judah and to theinhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel who are near and who are far off, through all the countries where You have driven them, because of theirtrespass that they have trespassed against You. 


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O Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 


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neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets. 


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"Yea, all Israel have transgressed Your law, even by departing, that they might not obey Your voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against Him. 


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And He has confirmed His words which He spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven has not been done as has been done upon Jerusalem. 


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"As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us. Yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. 


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Therefore has the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all His works which He does, for we obeyed not His voice. 


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"And now, O Lord our God, who have brought Your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and have made You a name, as at this day -- we have sinned, we have done wickedly. 


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O Lord, according to all Your righteousness, I beseech You, let Your anger and Your fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; because for our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all who are about us. 


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"Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Your servant and his supplications, and cause Your face to shine upon Your sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. 


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O my God, incline Your ear and hear. Open Your eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteousnesses, but because of Your great mercies. 


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O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hearken and do! Defer not, for Your own sake, O my God; for Your city and Your people are called by Your name." 


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The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy<br/>And while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God -- 


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yea, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. 


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And he informed me, and talked with me and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you skill and understanding. 


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At the beginning of your supplications the commandment came forth; and I have come to show you, for you are greatly beloved. Therefore understand the matter, and heed the vision: 


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"Seventy weeks are determined concerning your people and concerning your holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. 


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Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem until the Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublesome times. 


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And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself; and the people of the prince who shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And the end thereof shall be with a flood, and until the end of the war desolations are determined. 


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And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate." 


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Daniel's Vision of the Glorious Man by the Great River<br/>In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a thing was revealed unto Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar. And the thing was true, but the time appointed was long; and he understood the thing, and had understanding of the vision. 


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I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. 


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And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel, 


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then I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz. 


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His body also was like beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like the color of polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude. 


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And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves. 


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Therefore I was left alone and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me; for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. 


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Yet heard I the voice of his words; and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face was toward the ground. 


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Prophecies Concerning Persia and Greece<br/>And behold, a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. 


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And he said unto me, "O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto you, and stand upright; for unto you am I now sent." And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. 


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Then said he unto me, "Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you did set your heart to understand and to chasten yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come for your words. 


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But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days; but lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia. 


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Now I have come to make you understand what shall befall your people in the latter days, for yet the vision is for many days." 


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And behold, one with the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips. Then I opened my mouth and spoke, and said unto him that stood before me, "O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. 


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For how can this servant of my Lord talk with you, my lord? For as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me." 


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and said, "O man greatly beloved, fear not. Peace be unto you; be strong, yea, be strong." And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened and said, "Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me." 


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Then said he, "Knowe you why I come unto you? And now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia; and when I have gone forth, lo, the prince of Greece shall come. 


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But I will show you that which is noted in the Scripture of truth; and there is none that holds with me in these things, but Michael your prince. 


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Warring Kings of North and South<br/>"Also I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, even I, stood to confirm and to strengthen him. 


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"And now will I show you the truth: Behold, there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia, and the fourth shall be far richer than them all; and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece. 


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And when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken and shall be divided toward the four winds of heaven, and not to his posterity nor according to his dominion which he ruled; for his kingdom shall be plucked up, even for others besides those. 


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"And the king of the south shall be strong, and one of his princes; and he shall be strong above him and have dominion. His dominion shall be a great dominion. 


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And in the end of years they shall join themselves together, for the king's daughter of the south shall come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she shall not retain the power of the arm; neither shall he stand, nor his arm; but she shall be given up with they that brought her, and him that begot her, and him that strengthened her in these times. 


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"But out of a branch of her roots shall one stand up in his place, who shall come with an army and shall enter into the fortress of the king of the north, and shall deal against them and shall prevail. 


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And he shall also carry captive into Egypt their gods, with their princes and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north. 


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"But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces; and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and pass through. Then shall he return and be stirred up, even to his fortress. 


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And the king of the south shall be moved with anger, and shall come forth and fight with him, even with the king of the north; and he shall set forth a great multitude, but the multitude shall be given into his hand. 


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And when he has taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up; and he shall cast down many ten thousands, but he shall not be strengthened by it. 


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For the king of the north shall return, and shall set forth a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years with a great army and with much riches. 


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"And in those times shall many stand up against the king of the south; also the robbers of your people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision, but they shall fall. 


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So the king of the north shall come and cast up a mound, and take the most fortified cities; and the armies of the south shall not withstand, neither his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand. 


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But he that comes  against him shall do according to his own will, and none shall stand before him; and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by his hand shall be consumed. 


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He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do. And he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her; but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him. 


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After this shall he turn his face unto the isles, and shall take many. But a prince for his own behalf shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease; without his own reproach, he shall cause it to turn upon him. 


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Then he shall turn his face toward the fortress of his own land; but he shall stumble and fall, and not be found. 


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"Then shall stand up in his place a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom; but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle. 


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And in his place shall stand up a vile person to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom; but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries. 


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And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. 


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And after the league is made with him he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people. 


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He <n>(Anti-Christ)</n> shall enter <n>(arise)</n> peaceably even upon <n>(over)</n> the fattest <n>(oil)</n> places of the province <n>(Medina)</n>; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers: he shall scatter among them the plunder and spoil and riches; yea, and he shall plot his devices against the strongholds, even for a time. 


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And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for they shall plot devices against him. 


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Yea, those who feed from the portion of his meat shall destroy him, and his army shall overflow; and many shall fall down slain. 


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And both these kings' hearts shall be to do mischief, and they shall speak lies at one table; but it shall not prosper, for yet the end shall be at the time appointed. 


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Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land. 


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The Northern King's Blasphemies<br/>"At the time appointed he shall return and come toward the south, but it shall not be as the former or as the latter; 


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for the ships of Chittim shall come against him. Therefore he shall be grieved and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant. So shall he do; he shall even return, and have accord with those who forsake the holy covenant. 


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And armies shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place there the abomination that makes desolate. 


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And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries; but the people who do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits. 


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And those who understand among the people shall instruct many; yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil many days. 


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Now when they shall fall, they shall be helped with a little help; but many shall cleave to them with flatteries. 


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And some of those of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end, because it is yet for a time appointed. 


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"And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished; for that which is determined shall be done. 


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Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God; for he shall magnify himself above all. 


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But in his place shall he honor the God of forces; and a God whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold and silver, and with precious stones and pleasant things. 


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Thus shall he do in the greatest strongholds with a strange God, whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory. And he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price. 


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The Northern King's Conquests<br/>"And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him. And the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots and with horsemen and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. 


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He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but these shall escape out of his hand: even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. 


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But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. 


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But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him. Therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many.


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And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain. Yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. 


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Prophecy of the The Time of the End <n>(End Times)</n><br/>"And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince who stands for the children of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who shall be found written in the book. 


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And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 


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And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. 


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But you, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." 


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Then I, Daniel, looked; and behold, there stood two others, the one on this side of the bank of the river and the other on that side of the bank of the river. 


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And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was upon the waters of the river, "How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?" 


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And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by Him that lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when he shall have accomplished scattering the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. 


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And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I, "O my lord, what shall be the end of these things?" 


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And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. 


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Many shall be purified and made white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand. 


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And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. 


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But go you your way till the end be; for you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days." 


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Hosea's Unfaithful Wife<br/>The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. 


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The Family of Hosea<br/>The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea: And the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take unto you a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms; for the land has committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD." 


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And the LORD said unto him, "Call his name Jezreel; for in yet a little while I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 


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And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel." 


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And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And God said unto him, "Call her name Loruhamah <n>(that is, Not having obtained mercy)</n>; for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. 


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But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen." 


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Then said God, "Call his name Loammi <n>(that is, Not My people)</n>, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God . 


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The Restoration of Israel<br/>Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, `You are not My people,' there it shall be said unto them, `You are the sons of the living God .' 


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Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel. 


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The LORD's Love for His Unfaithful People<br/>"Say you unto your brethren, `Ammi' <n>(that is, My people)</n>, and to your sisters, `Ruhamah' <n>(that is, Having obtained mercy)</n>. 


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God's Unfaithful People<br/>"Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not My wife, neither am I her Husband. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts, 


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lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 


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For their mother has played the harlot; she that conceived them has done shamefully. For she said, `I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.' 


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"Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 


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And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then shall she say, `I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.' 


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For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 


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Therefore will I return and take away My corn at the harvest thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness. 


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And now will I uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand. 


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I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 


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And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she has said, `These are my rewards that my lovers have given me'; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 


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And I will visit upon her the days of the Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot Me," says the LORD. 


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God's Mercy on His People<br/>"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortingly unto her. 


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And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the Valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 


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"And it shall be at that day," says the LORD, "that you shall call Me `Ishi' <n>(that is, My husband)</n>, and shall call Me no more `Baali' <n>(that is, My Lord)</n>. 


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For I will take away the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. 


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And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow and the sword and warfare out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. 


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And I will betroth you unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth you unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 


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"And it shall come to pass in that day I will hear," says the LORD, "I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth. 


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And I will sow her unto Me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to those who were not My people, `You are My people'; and they shall say, `You are my God .'" 


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Israel Will Return to God; Hosea and the Adulteress<br/>Then said the LORD unto me, "Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other Gods and love flagons of wine." 


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So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley and a half homer of barley. 


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And I said unto her, "You shall abide for me many days. You shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man. So will I also be for you." 


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For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim. 


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Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God and David their king, and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days. 


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The LORD God's Controversy <n>(Charge Against)</n> with Israel<br/>Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel; for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, Because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land. 


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"By swearing and lying, and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break out, and blood touchs blood. 


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Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwells therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 


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Yet let no man strive with, nor reprove another; for this people are as they that strive with the priest. 


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Therefore shall you fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother. 


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My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to Me. Seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. 


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"As they were increased, so they sinned against Me; therefore will I change their glory into shame. 


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And it shall be: like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. 


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For they shall eat and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase, because they have left off taking heed of the LORD. 


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My people ask counsel from their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of whoredoms has caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from their God . 


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They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good; therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery. 


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I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery; for the men themselves consort with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: Therefore the people that does not understand shall fall. 


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"Though you, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not you unto Gilgal, neither go you up to Bethaven, nor swear, `The LORD liveth.' 


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For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer; now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.


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Their drink is sour; they have committed whoredom continually; her rulers with shame do love, `Give ye.' 


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God's Displeasure with Israel; Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah<br/>"Hear you this, O priests! And hearken, you house of Israel! And give you ear, O house of the king! For judgment is against you, because you have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. 


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I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from Me; for now, O Ephraim, you committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled. 


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"They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God; for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD. 


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And the pride of Israel does testify to his face; therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.


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They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD, but they shall not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. 


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They have dealt treacherously against the LORD, for they have begotten strange children. Now shall a month devour them with their portions. 


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"Blow you the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Cry aloud at Bethaven! After you, O Benjamin! 


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Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.


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The princes of Judah were like them that remove the landmarks; therefore I will pour out My wrath upon them like water.


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"When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to King Jareb. Yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. 


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For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. 


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I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offense and seek My face; in their affliction they will seek Me early." 


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A Call to Repentance; Israel's Insincere Repentance<br/>Come, and let us return unto the LORD; for He has torn, and He will heal us; He has smitten, and He will bind us up. 


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After two days will He revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. 


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Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD; His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth. 


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Impenitence of Israel and Judah<br/>"O Ephraim, what shall I do unto you? O Judah, what shall I do unto you? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away. 


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Therefore have I hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and your judgments are as the light that goes forth.


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And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way by consent; for they commit lewdness. 


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I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel; there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. 


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Israel Has Rebelled Against God<br/>"When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they commit falsehood; and the thief comes  in, and the troop of robbers despoileth without. 


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And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings have beset them about; they are before My face.


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They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceases from raising after he has kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. 


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In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners. 


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For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait; their baker sleeps all the night; in the morning it burns as a flaming fire. 


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They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen; there is none among them that calls unto Me. 


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Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knows not. 


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And the pride of Israel testifies to his face; and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek Him for all this. 


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Futile Reliance on the Nations<br/>"Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. 


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When they shall go, I will spread My net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard. 


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Woe unto them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against Me! Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me. 


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And they have not cried unto Me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds; they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against Me. 


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They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue; this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. 


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The Apostasy of Israel; Sow the Wind and Reap the Whirlwind<br/>"Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law. 


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They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. 


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"Your calf, O Samaria, has cast you off; Mine anger is kindled against them. How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? 


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For from Israel was it also: the workman made it, therefore it is not God; but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. 


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For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. It has no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal. If so it shall yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. 


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Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes. 


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They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of Mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not. Now will He remember their iniquity and visit their sins; they shall return to Egypt. 


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For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities. But I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof." 


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The Days of Judgment of Israel's Sin Have Come<br/>Rejoice not for joy, O Israel, as other people, for you have gone a whoring from your God; you have loved for reward upon every threshing floor. 


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They shall not dwell in the LORD's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. 


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They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto Him; their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners. All that eat thereof shall be polluted, for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD. 


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For lo, they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess the pleasant places for their silver; thorns shall be in their tabernacles. 


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The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad because of the multitude of your iniquity and great hatred. 


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The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God . 


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They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. Therefore He will remember their iniquity; He will visit their sins. 


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"I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe of the fig tree at her first season. But they went to Baal Peor, and separated themselves unto that shame, and their abominations were according as they loved. 


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As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception. 


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Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left; yea, woe also to them when I depart from them! 


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Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer." 


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"All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them; for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of Mine house. I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters. 


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Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb." 


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My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations. 


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The Punishment of Israel's Sin and Captivity<br/>Israel is an empty vine; he brings forth fruit unto himself. According to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.


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Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty. He shall break down their altars; He shall despoil their images.


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For now they shall say, "We have no king, because we feared not the LORD. What then should a king do to us?" 


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They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant; thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. 


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The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof who rejoiced on it for the glory thereof, because glory has departed from it. 


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It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jareb. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. 


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The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!" 


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"O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood. The battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them. 


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It is in My desire that I should chastise them, and the people shall be gathered against them when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows. 


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And Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught and loves to tread out the corn, but I passed over upon her fair neck. I will make Ephraim to ride, Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods." 


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Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, till He come and rain righteousness upon you. 


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You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies, because you did trust in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men. 


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Therefore shall a tumult arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be despoiled, as Shalman despoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. 


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So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness; in a morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off.


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God's Continuing Love for Faithless Israel<br/>"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt. 


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As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed unto the Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. 


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I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke from their jaws, and I laid meat before them. 


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"He shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return. 


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And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches and devour them, because of their own counsels. 


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And My people are bent on backsliding from Me; though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt Him. 


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"How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you, Israel? How shall I make you as Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboiim? Mine heart is turned within Me; My repentings are kindled together. 


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I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of you; and I will not enter into the city. 


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"They shall walk after the LORD; He shall roar like a lion. When He shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west. 


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They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will place them in their houses," says the LORD. 


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God's Charge Against Ephraim<br/>Ephraim compAsses  me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints. 


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Ephraim's Sins Rebuked by God<br/>Ephraim feeds on wind, and followes after the east wind; he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. 


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The LORD has also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will He recompense him. 


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Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto Him; he found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke with us, 


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And Ephraim said, "Yet I am become rich, I have found myself substance; in all my labors they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin." 


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"And I that am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt will yet make you to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast. 


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I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets." 


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Is there iniquity in Gilead? Surely they are vanity. They sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields. 


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And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. 


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Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly; therefore shall He leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. 


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Relentless Judgment on Israel and Ephraim's Destruction Foretold<br/>When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. 


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And now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, "Let the sacrificers of men kiss the calves!" 


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Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. 


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"Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no savior besides Me. 


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According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten Me. 


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I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion; the beast of the field shall tear them. 


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I will be your King. Where is any other that may save you in all your cities, and your judges of whom you saidst, `Give me a king and princes'? 


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The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. 


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I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be your plagues! O grave, I will be your destruction! Repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes." 


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Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come; the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up; He shall despoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. 


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Samaria shall become desolate, for she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. 


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Israel Restored at Last<br/>O Israel, return unto the LORD your God, for you have fallen by your iniquity. 


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Take with you words, and turn to the LORD; say unto Him, "Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we offer the calves of our lips. 


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Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, `You are our gods'; for in You the fatherless finds mercy." 


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They that dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.


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Ephraim shall say, `What have I to do any more with idols?' I have heard him, and observed him; I am like a green fir tree. From Me is your fruit found." 


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Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein. 


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The Land Laid Waste<br/>Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? 


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Tell you your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. 


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That which the palmer worm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left has the caterpillar eaten.


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Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and howl, all you drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. 


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For a nation has come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the cheek teeth of a great lion. 


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He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree; he has made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. 


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The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn. 


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The field is wasted, the land mourneth, for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. 


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Be you ashamed, O you husbandmen; howl, O you vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. 


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The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree--even all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 


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Mourning for the Land<br/>Gird yourselves and lament, you priests; howl, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God; for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God . 


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Sanctify you a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD! 


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Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 


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The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. 


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How the beasts do groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 


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O LORD, to You will I cry! For the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. 


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The beasts of the field cry also unto You; for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. 


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The Day of the LORD's Judgment on Judah and Israel<br/>Blow you the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand-- 


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a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. A great people and a strong, there has not been ever the like; neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 


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A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. 


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Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 


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They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march everyone on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. 


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Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk everyone in his path; and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 


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They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses, they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 


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The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. 


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And the LORD shall utter His voice before His army, for His camp is very great. For He is strong that executeth His word; for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible, and who can abide it? 


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"Therefore also now," says the LORD, "turn you even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning." 


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And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth of the evil. 


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Who knows if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him--even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God ? 


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gather the people! Sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber and the bride out of her retreat. 


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Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, "Spare Your people, O LORD, and give not Your heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them.Why should they say among the people, `Where is their God ?'" 


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Yea, the LORD will answer and say unto His people: "Behold, I will send you corn and wine and oil, and you shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen. 


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But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea. And his stink shall come up, and his ill savor shall come up"" because He has done great things. 


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Be not afraid, you beasts of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. 


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Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; for He has given you the early rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the early rain and the latter rain in the first month. 


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"And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm, My great army which I sent among you. 


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And you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God that has dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be ashamed. 


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And you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else; and My people shall never be ashamed. 


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God's Spirit Poured Out<br/>"And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; 


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The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 


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And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD has said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. 


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God's Judgment on <n>(Judges)</n> the Nations<br/>"For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, 


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I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land. 


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And they have cast lots for My people, and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink. 


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Yea, and what have you to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the coasts of Palestine? Will you render Me a recompense? And if you recompense Me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head, 


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because you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried into your temples My goodly, pleasant things. 


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The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have you sold unto the Grecians, that you might remove them far from their border. 


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Behold, I will raise them out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head. 


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And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; for the LORD has spoken it." 


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Proclaim you this among the Gentiles: Prepare war! Wake up the mighty men! Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.


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Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, "I am strong." 


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Assemble yourselves and come, all you heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause Your mighty ones to come down, O LORD. 


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"Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. 


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Put you in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow--for their wickedness is great!" 


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Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. 


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The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the LORD will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. 


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"So shall you know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. 


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God Blesses His People<br/>"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and shall water the valley of Shittim. 


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Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. 


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Judgments on Israel's Neighbors<br/>The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. 


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And he said: "The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither." 


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Judgment on the Nations<br/>Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron. 


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I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holds the scepter from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir," says the LORD. 


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Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they carried away captive the whole captivity to deliver them up to Edom. 


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And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holds the scepter from Ashkelon; and I will turn Mine hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish," says the Lord GOD . 


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Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant. 


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Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity; and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever. 


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Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. 


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But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind. 


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Judgment on Israel<br/>Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. 


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But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. 


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And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him," says the LORD. 


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Judgment on Judah<br/>Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept His commandments; and their lies caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked. 


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Judgment on Israel<br/>Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes. 


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They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek; and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid to profane My holy name. 


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And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid in pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God . 


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"Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. 


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Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. 


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And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O you children of Israel?" says the LORD. 


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Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself. 


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Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow, and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself; neither shall he that rides the horse deliver himself. 


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Authority of the Prophet's Message; The Condemnation of Samaria<br/>Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 


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"You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." 


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Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? 


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Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no trap is for him? Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? 


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Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD has not done it? 


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Punishment of Israel's Sins<br/>Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, "Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof and the oppressed in the midst thereof. 


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For they know not to do right," says the LORD, "who store up violence and robbery in their palaces." 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : "An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down your strength from you, and your palaces shall be despoiled." 


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Thus says the LORD: "As the shepherd takes out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out, that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed and in Damascus on a couch. 


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"that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground. 


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And I will smite the winter house and the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end," says the LORD. 


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God's Punishments Have Not Reformed Israel<br/>Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, "Bring, and let us drink." 


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The Lord GOD has sworn by His holiness that: "Lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fishhooks. 


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And you shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her, and you shall cast them into the palace," says the LORD. 


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"Come to Bethel and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes after three years. 


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And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings; for so you love, O you children of Israel," says the Lord GOD . 


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Israel Did Not Accept Correction<br/>"And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have you not returned unto Me," says the LORD. 


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"And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon, and the piece upon which it rained not withered. 


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So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet have you not returned unto Me," says the LORD. 


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"I have smitten you with blight and mildew; when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmer worm devoured them; yet have you not returned unto Me," says the LORD. 


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"I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils; yet have you not returned unto Me," says the LORD. 


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"I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet have you not returned unto Me," says the LORD. 


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"Therefore thus will I do unto you, O Israel; and because I will do this unto you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!" 


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For lo, He that formeth the mountains and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is His thought, that makes the morning darkness, and treads  upon the high places of the earth--the LORD, the God of Hosts, is His name. 


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A Lament for Israel<br/>Hear you 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 says the Lord GOD : "The city that went out by a thousand shall be left a hundred, and that which went forth by a hundred shall be left ten to the house of Israel." 


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A Call to Repentance<br/>For thus says the LORD unto the house of Israel: "Seek you Me, and you shall live; 


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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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Seek the LORD, and you 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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Seek Him that makes the seven stars and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night, who calls 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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who strengtheneth the despoiled against the strong, so that the despoiled shall come against the fortress. 


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Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and you take from him burdens of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink wine from 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 at the gate from their right. 


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Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as you 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 unto the remnant of Joseph. 


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The Day of the LORD<br/>Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord says 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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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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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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Though you 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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"Have you offered unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? 


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But you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your God which you made for yourselves. 


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


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Warnings to Zion and Samaria<br/>Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, who are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! 


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Pass you unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go you to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Or their border greater than your border? 


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that lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall; 


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that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments-- but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. 


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Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed. 


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The Lord GOD has sworn by Himself; says the LORD the God of hosts: "I abhor the pretensions of Jacob, and hate his palaces; therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein." 


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And a man's kinsman shall take him up, and he that burns him, to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the side of the house, "Is there yet any with you?" And he shall say, "No." Then shall he say, "Hold your tongue, for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD." 


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For behold, the LORD commandeth, and He will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. 


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Shall horses run upon the rock? Will one plow there with oxen? For you have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock, 


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you that rejoice in a thing of nought, who say, "Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?" 


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"But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel," says the LORD the God of hosts; "and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness." 


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Amos and Amaziah; Vision of the Locusts<br/>Thus has the Lord GOD shown unto me: And behold, He formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and lo, it was the latter growth after the king's mowings. 


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And it came to pass, when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, "O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech You! By whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small." 


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Vision of the Fire<br/>Thus has the Lord GOD shown unto me: And behold, the Lord GOD called to contend by fire; and it devoured the great deep and ate up a part. 


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Vision of the Plumb Line<br/>Thus He showed me: And behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. 


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And the LORD said unto me, "Amos, what see you?" And I said, "A plumb line." Then said the Lord, "Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. 


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And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." 


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Amaziah's Complaint<br/>Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, "Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. 


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For thus Amos says, `Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.'" 


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Also Amaziah said unto Amos, "O you seer, go, flee you away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there. 


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But prophesy not again any more at Bethel; for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the king's court." 


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Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. 


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And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said unto me, `Go, prophesy unto My people Israel.' 


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Now therefore, hear you the word of the LORD. You sayest, `Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not your word against the house of Isaac.' 


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Therefore thus says the LORD: `Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword; and your land shall be divided by line, and you shall die in a polluted land. And Israel shall surely go into captivity forth from his land.'" 


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Vision of the Summer Fruit<br/>Thus has the Lord GOD shown unto me: And behold, a basket of summer fruit. 


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And He said, "Amos, what see you?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then said the LORD unto me: "The end is come upon My people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. 


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And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day," says the Lord GOD. "There shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence." 


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saying, "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit, 


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that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?" 


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Shall not the land tremble for this, and everyone mourn that dwells therein? And it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. 


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And it shall come to pass in that day," says the Lord GOD, "that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. 


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And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. 


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"Behold, the days come," says the Lord GOD, "that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. 


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And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it. 


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They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say, `Your God, O Dan, liveth,' and, `The manner of Beersheba liveth' -- even they shall fall and never rise up again." 


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The LORD's Judgments <n>(Destruction)</n> of Israel <n>(Inescapable)</n><br/>I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and He said: "Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake, and wound them on the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword. He that flees from them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth from them shall not be delivered. 


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Though they dig into hell, thence shall Mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down. 


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And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them. 


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And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them. And I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good." 


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And the Lord GOD of hosts is He that touchs the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt. 


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It is He that builds His spheres in the heaven, and has founded His troop on the earth. He that calls 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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"Are you not as children of the Ethiopians unto Me, O children of Israel?" says the LORD. "Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? 


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Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob," says the LORD. 


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"For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve; yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. 


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All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, who say, `The evil shall not overtake nor come before us.' 


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Israel Will Be Restored<br/>In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old, 


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that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen that are called by My name," says the LORD that does this. 


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"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sowes seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 


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And I will bring back the captives of My people of Israel, and they shall build the wasted cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 


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And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them," says the LORD your God . 


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The Coming Judgment on Edom and Israel's Triumph<br/>The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom: We have heard a word from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen: "Arise you, and let us rise up against her in battle": 


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The pride of your heart has deceived you, you that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that says in his heart, `Who shall bring me down to the ground?' 


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Though you exalt yourself as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, from thence will I bring you down," says the LORD. 


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"If thieves came to you, if robbers by night <n>(how you are cut off!)</n>, would they not have stolen till they had enough? If the grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some grapes? 


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All the men of your confederacy have brought you even to the border; the men that were at peace with you have deceived you and prevailed against you. They that eat your bread have laid a wound under you; there is no understanding in him.


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Shall I not in that day," says the LORD, "even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? 


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And your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that everyone of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. 


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Edom Mistreated His Brother<br/>"For your violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for ever. 


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In the day that you stoodest on the other side--in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem" even you wast as one of them. 


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But you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither should you have spoken proudly in the day of distress.


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You should not have entered into the gate of My people in the day of their calamity; yea, you should not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity. 


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Neither should you have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape; neither should you have delivered up those of his that remained in the day of distress.


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"For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen. As you have done, it shall be done unto you: your reward shall return upon your own head. 


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For as you have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually; yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been. 


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Israel's Final Triumph<br/>"But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. 


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And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble; and they shall kindle them and devour them. And there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken it." 


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And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the plain the Philistines. And they shall possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 


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And the captives of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the south. 


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And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.


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Jonah's Disobedience and Punishment<br/>Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 


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"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." 


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The Storm at Sea<br/>But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. 


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But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was likely to be broken. 


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Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner parts of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep. 


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So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, "What mean you, O sleeper? Arise, call upon your God, if it so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not." 


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And they said everyone to his fellow, "Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. 


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Then said they unto him, "Tell us, we pray you, for whose cause this evil is upon us: What is your occupation? And from where comest you? What is your country? And of what people are you?" 


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And he said unto them, "I am a Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who has made the sea and the dry land." 


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Jonah Thrown into the Sea<br/>Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, "Why have you done this?" For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. 


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Then said they unto him, "What shall we do unto you, that the sea may be calm unto us?" For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. 


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And he said unto them, "Take me up and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." 


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Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not, for the sea was wroughtup and was tempestuous against them. 


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Therefore they cried unto the LORD and said, "We beseech You, O LORD, we beseech You, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood! For You, O LORD, have done as it pleased You." 


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Jonah's Prayer and Deliverance<br/>Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.


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Jonah's Prayer and God's Answer<br/>Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly, 


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and said: "I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and He heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and You heard my voice. 


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For You hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. 


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The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 


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I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever; yet have You brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God . 


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"When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came in unto You, into Your holy temple. 


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but I will sacrifice unto You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD." 


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Nineveh Repents<br/>"Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you." 


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So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. 


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And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." 


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The People of Nineveh Believe<br/>So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 


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For word came unto the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. 


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And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, "Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water. 


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But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 


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Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?" 


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And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. And God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them, and He did it not. 


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God's Lesson to Jonah<br/>And he prayed unto the LORD and said, "I pray You, O LORD, was not this what I said when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest of the evil. 


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Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech You, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." 


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So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city. 


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And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad for the gourd. 


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But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd so that it withered. 


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And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, so that he grew faint and wished in himself to die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." 


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And God said to Jonah, "Do you well to be angry over the gourd?" And he said, "I do well to be angry, even unto death." 


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Then said the LORD, "You have had pity on the gourd for which you have not labored, neither made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. 


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And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many cattle?" 


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Judgment on Israel and Judah<br/>The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. 


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The Coming Judgment on Israel<br/>Hear, all you people! Hearken, O earth, and all that is therein! And let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. 


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For behold, the LORD comes  forth out of His place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. 


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And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as waters that are poured down a steep place. 


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For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem? 


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"Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof. 


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And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate; for she gathered it from the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot." 


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Mourning for Israel and Judah<br/>Therefore I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owls.


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For her wound is incurable; for it has come unto Judah; he has come unto the gate of My people, even to Jerusalem. 


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Pass you away, you inhabitant of Shaphir, having your shame naked. The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall receive from you his standing. 


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For the inhabitant of Maroth waited anxiously for good, but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem. 


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O you inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast <n>(she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion)</n>, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you. 


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Therefore shall you give presents to Moreshethgath; the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel.


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Yet I will bring an heir unto you, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel. 


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Make yourself bald, and shear your beard because of your pleasant children; enlarge your baldness as the eagle, for they are gone into captivity from you. 


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Woe to Evildoers and Oppressor of the Poor<br/>Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. 


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They covet fields and take them by violence, and houses, and take them away. So they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. 


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Therefore thus says the LORD: "Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which you shall not remove your necks, neither shall you go haughtily; for this time is evil. 


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In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation and say, `We are utterly despoiled; He has changed the portion of my people. How has He removed it from me! Turning away, He has divided our fields.'" 


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Lying Prophets<br/>"Prophesy you not," say they to them that prophesy: "They shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not suffer shame." 


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Oh you that are named the house of Jacob: Is the Spirit of the LORD straitened? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good to him that walks uprightly?


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"Even of late My people have risen up as an enemy; you pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by trustingly as men returning from war. 


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The women of My people have you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have you taken away My glory for ever.


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Arise you and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is polluted it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. 


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If a man walking in the spirit of falsehood lieth, saying, `I will prophesy unto you of wine and of strong drink,' he shall even be the prophet of this people! 


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Israel Restored<br/>"I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold; and they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. 


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The Breaker has come up before them; they have broken forth and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it; and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD at the head of them." 


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Wicked Rulers and Prophets<br/>And I said: "Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and you princes of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgment" 


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you who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones, 


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who also eat the flesh of My people and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones and chop them in pieces, as for the pot and as flesh within the caldron?" 


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Then shall they cry unto the LORD, but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. 


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Thus says the LORD: Concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth and cry "Peace"; and he that puts not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him: 


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"Therefore night shall be unto you, that you shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that you shall not divine. And the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. 


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Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God ." 


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But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and of judgment and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. 


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Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment and pervert all equity: 


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The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No evil can come upon us." 


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Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. 


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The LORD's Reign in Zion<br/>But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. 


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And many nations shall come and say, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." For the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 


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Swords into Plowshares<br/>And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 


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But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken it. 


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For all people will walk everyone in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever. 


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Zion's Future Triumph<br/>"In that day," says the LORD, "will I assemble her that is halt, and I will gather her that is driven out and her that I have afflicted. 


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And I will make her that is halt a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; and the LORD shall reign over them in Mount Zion from hence forth, even for ever. 


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And you, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto you shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem." 


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Now why dost you cry out aloud? Is there no king in you? Is your counselor perished? For pangs have taken you as a woman in travail.


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Be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shall you go forth out of the city, and you shall dwell in the field. And you shall go even to Babylon; there shall you be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies. 


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Now also many nations are gathered against you, that say, "Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion!" 


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But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they His counsel; for He shall gather them as the sheaves onto the threshing floor. 


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Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass. And you shall beat in pieces many people, and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth. 


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The Messiah Will Be Born at Bethlehem<br/>Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops; he has laid siege against us; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. 


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The Coming Messiah<br/>"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth unto Me He that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." 


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Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she who travails has brought forth; then the remnant of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. 


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And He shall stand and feed them in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they shall abide; for now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth. 


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And this Man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land; and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men. 


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Judgment on Israel's Enemies<br/>And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at the entrances thereof; thus shall He deliver us from the Assyrian when he comes  into our land, and when he treads  within our borders. 


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And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people, as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass that  tarries not for man, nor  waits for the sons of men. 


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And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through, both treads  down and tears in pieces, and none can deliver. 


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"And it shall come to pass in that day," says the LORD, "that I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, and I will destroy your chariots. 


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Your graven images also will I cut off, and your standing images out of the midst of you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands. 


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God Pleads with Israel<br/>Hear you now what the LORD saith: "Arise, contend you before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 


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Hear you, O mountains, the LORD's controversy, and you strong foundations of the earth; for the LORD has a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel. 


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For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of servitude; and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. 


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O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Shittim unto Gilgal, that you may know the righteousness of the LORD." 


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With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 


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Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 


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He has shown you, O man, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God ? 


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Punishment of Israel's Injustice<br/>The LORD's voice cries unto the city <n>(and the man of wisdom shall see Your name)</n>: "Hear you the rod and who has appointed it! 


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Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? 


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For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 


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You shall eat, but not be satisfied, and your casting down shall be in the midst of you. And you shall take hold, but shall not deliver; and that which you deliverest will I give up to the sword. 


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You shall sow, but you shall not reap; you shall tread the olives, but you shall not anoint yourself with oil; and sweet wine, but shall not drink wine. 


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For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you walk in their counsels, that I should make you a desolation and the inhabitants thereof a hissing: Therefore you shall bear the reproach of My people." 


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God Will Forgive Israel; Sorrow for Israel's Sins<br/>Woe is me! For I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: There is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first ripe fruit. 


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The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. 


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That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asks for a reward; and the great man  utters his wicked desire; so they wrap it up. 


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The best of them is as a brier; the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchman and your visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.


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Trust you not in a friend, put you not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of your mouth from her that lies in your bosom. 


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For the son dishonors the father, the daughter  rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: a man's enemies are the men of his own house. 


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Israel's Confession and Comfort<br/>Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me. 


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I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness. 


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Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her that said unto me, "Where is the LORD your God ?" Mine eyes shall behold her; now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. 


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In that day also he shall come even to you from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. 


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Notwithstanding, the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, because of the fruit of their doings. 


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God Will Forgive Israel<br/>Rule Your people with Your rod, the flock of Your heritage, who dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. 


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The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might; they shall lay their hand upon their mouth; their ears shall be deaf.


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They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of You. 


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Who is a God like unto You, who  pardons iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He  retains not His anger for ever, because He delights in mercy. 


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He will turn again; He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities. And You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.


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You will perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. 


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God's Mercy and Judgment <n>(Wrath)</n> on His Enemies<br/>The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.


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God is jealous, and the LORD avengeth; the LORD  avenges and is furious. The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies. 


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The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The LORD has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. 


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He rebuketh the sea and makes it dry, and drieth up all the rivers; Bashan languisheth and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. 


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The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein. 


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Who can stand before His indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him. 


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But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue His enemies. 


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What do you contrive against the LORD? He will make an utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time.


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For while they are folded together as thorns and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. 


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Thus says the LORD: "Though they be quiet and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more; 


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And the LORD has given a commandment concerning you, That no more of your name be sown: "Out of the house of your Gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile." 


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Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him that brings good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep your solemn feasts, perform your vows; for the wicked shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off. 


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The Destruction of Nineveh<br/>He that dasheth in pieces has come up before your face. Man the defenses! Watch the way! Make your loins strong! Fortify your power mightily!


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For the LORD has turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches. 


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The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet; the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. 


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The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways; they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightning. 


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He shall muster his worthies; they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared. 


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And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up; and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts. 


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But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water; yet they shall flee away. "Stand, stand!" shall they cry, but none shall look back. 


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Take you the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store and glory of all the pleasant furnishings. 


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She is empty and void and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together; and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. 


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Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid? 


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The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey and his dens with rapine. 


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"Behold, I am against you," says the LORD of hosts, "and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard." 


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Judgment for <n>(Woe of)</n> Nineveh's Sins<br/>Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departs not.


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The noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots! 


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The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear, and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcAsses. And there is no end of their corpses--they stumble upon their corpses" 


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because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavored harlot, the mistress of witchcraft, that selleth nations through her whoredom, and families through her witchcraft. 


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"Behold, I am against you," says the LORD of hosts, "and I will uncover your skirts upon your face; and I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. 


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And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon you shall flee from you and say, `Nineveh is laid waste! Who will bemoan her?' From where shall I seek comforters for you?" 


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Are you better than populous No, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampare was the sea and her wall was from the sea? 


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Yet was she carried away; she went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. 


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All your strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. 


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Behold, your people in the midst of you are women; the gates of your land shall be set wide open unto your enemies; the fire shall devour your bars. 


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Draw you waters for the siege! Fortify your strongholds! Go into clay and tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln!


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There shall the fire devour you; the sword shall cut you off; it shall eat you up like the cankerworm. Make yourself many as the cankerworm, make yourself many as the locusts. 


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You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven. The cankerworm despoileth, and flees away. 


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Your crowned ones are as the locusts, and your captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day; but when the sun arises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. 


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Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles shall dwell in the dust; your people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathers them. 


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There is no healing of your bruise; your wound is grievous. All that hear the report of you shall clap the hands over you. For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?


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The Prophet's <n>(First)</n> Question<br/>O LORD, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out unto You of violence, and You will not save? 


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Why dost You show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For despoiling and violence are before me, and there are those that raise up strife and contention. 


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Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment does never go forth. For the wicked does compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. 


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The LORD's Reply<br/>"Behold you among the heathen and regard, and wonder marvelously; for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe, though it be told you. 


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For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. 


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Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from afar; they shall fly as the vulture that hasteneth to eat. 


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They shall come all for violence; their faces shall consume as the east wind, and they shall gather the captives as the sand. 


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And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them. They shall deride every stronghold, for they shall heap up dirt and take it. 


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Then shall his mind change; and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his God ." 


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The Prophet's <n>(Second)</n> Question<br/>Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, You have established them for correction. 


