# verses

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My beloved is like a roe or a young hart. Behold, he stands behind our wall; he looks forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice. 


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The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. 


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The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.'" 


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"O my dove, that are in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice; for sweet is your voice, and your countenance is comely." 


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Her Brothers<br/>"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes." 


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To Her Beloved<br/>Until the day break and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be you like a roe or a young hare upon the mountains of Bether. 


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The Shulamite Seeks Her True Love; A Troubled Night<br/>"By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but I found him not. 


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I will rise now and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but I found him not. 


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It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. 


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I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that you stir not up nor awake my love, till he please." 


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The Shulamite Coming of Solomon<br/>"Who is this that comes  out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? 


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They all hold swords, being expert in war; every man has his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night. 


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he made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem. 


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Go forth, O you daughters of Zion, and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him on the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart." 


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The Shulamite;  Bridegroom Praises the Bride; The Beloved<br/>"Behold, you are fail, my love; behold, you are fair. You have doves' eyes within your locks; your hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead. 


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Your teeth are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn which came up from the washing, whereof everyone bear twins, and none is barren among them. 


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Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, and your speech is comely; your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within your locks. 


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Your neck is like the tower of David builded for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. 


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Until the day break and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. 


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Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon; look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 


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You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck. 


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How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is your love than wine, and the smell of your ointments than all spices! 


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Your lips, O my spouse, drip as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue, and the smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 


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spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices" 


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The Shulamite<br/>"Awake, O north wind, and come, you south! Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits." 


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The Bride Praises the Bridegroom; The Beloved<br/>"I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk." "Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved." 


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To His Friends; The Shulamite's Troubled Evening<br/>"I sleep, but my heart waketh; it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, `Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night.' 


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I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock. 


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I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone. My soul failed when he spoke; I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. 


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The watchmen that went about the city found me. They smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. 


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I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick with love." 


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The Daughters of Jerusalem<br/>"What is your beloved more than another beloved, O you fairest among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you dost so charge us?" 


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His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers; his lips like lilies, dropping sweetsmelling myrrh. 


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His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl; his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.


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His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold; his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. 


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His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem." 


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I Am My Beloved's; The Daughters of Jerusalem<br/>"where is your beloved gone, O you fairest among women? where is your beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with you?" 


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The Shulamite<br/>"My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens and to gather lilies. 


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S Praise of the Shulamite's Beauty; The Beloved<br/>"You are beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, fearsome as an army with banners. 


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Turn away your eyes from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead. 


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Your teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof everyone bears twins, and there is not one barren among them. 


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My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother; she is the choice one of her that bore her." "The daughters saw her and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised her: 


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`Who is she that looks forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and fearsome as an army with banners?'" 


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The Shulamite<br/>"I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished and the pomegranates budded. 


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The Beloved and His Friends<br/>"Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon you." "What will you see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies." 


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The Shulamite; Expressions of Praise; The Beauty of the Shulamite Girl; The Beloved<br/>"How beautiful are your feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! The joints of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman. 


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Your navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor; your belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies. 


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your neck is as a tower of ivory. Your eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon by the gate of Bathrabbim; your nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looks toward Damascus.


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Your head upon you is like Carmel, and the hair of your head like purple; the king is held in its galleries. 


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I said, `I will go up to the palm tree; I will take hold of the boughs thereof.' Now also your breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of your nose like apples. 


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And the roof of your mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goes down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak." 


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Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth; there will I give you my loves. 


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The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved." 


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Lovers Reunited at Their Country Home<br/>"O, that you wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother! When I should find you outside, I would kiss you; yea, I should not be despised. 


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I would lead you, and bring you into my mother's house, who would instruct me; I would cause you to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. 


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To the Daughters of Jerusalem<br/>His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. 


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S Love Renewed in Lebanon; A Relative<br/>"Who is this that comes  up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised you up under the apple tree; there your mother brought you forth; there she brought you forth that bore you." 


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The Shulamite to Her Beloved<br/>"Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which has a most vehement flame." 


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"Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned." 


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The Shulamite's Brothers<br/>"We have a little sister, and she has no breasts; what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? 


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If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver; and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar." 


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The Shulamite<br/>"I am a wall, and my breasts like towers; then was I in his eyes as one that found favor. 


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Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; everyone for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.


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To Solomon<br/>My vineyard, which is mine, is before me; you, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred." 


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The Beloved<br/>"You that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to your voice; cause me to hear it." 


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The Shulamite<br/>"Make haste, my beloved, and be you like to a roe or to a young hare upon the mountains of spices." 


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Judah Called to Repentance <br/>The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 


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The Wickedness of Judah <br/>Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the LORD has spoken: "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. 


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The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib; but Israel does not know, My people does not consider." 


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Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters! They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gone away backward. 


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Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 


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From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 


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Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 


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And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a shed in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 


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Unless the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. 


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Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah: 


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"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?" says the LORD. "I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs or of hegoats. 


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Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 


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Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble unto Me, I am weary of bearing them. 


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And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood. 


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Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes. Cease to do evil, 


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"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 


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but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword"; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it. 


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The Degenerate City<br/>How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers. 


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Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves; everyone loves bribes, and followes after rewards. They judge not the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come unto them. 


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Therefore says the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: "Ah, I will ease Me of Mine adversaries, and avenge Me of Mine enemies. 


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I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City." 


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And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the LORD shall be consumed. 


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For you shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen. 


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And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. 


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The Future House of God and Judgment on the Proud <br/>The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:


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And it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. 


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And many people shall go and say, "You come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 


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And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. 


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For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are replenished from the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines; and they please themselves with the children of strangers. 


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Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. 


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Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. 


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Enter into the rock, and hide you in the dust, for fear of the LORD and for the glory of His majesty. 


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The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down; and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 


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For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up--and he shall be brought low" 


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And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day, 


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And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD and for the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake terribly the earth. 


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In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold <n>(which he made each one for himself to worship)</n> to the moles and to the bats, 


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to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD and for the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake terribly the earth. 


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Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem <br/>For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, does take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole store of bread and the whole store of water, 


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the captain of fifty and the honorable man, and the counselor and the skilled artificer and the eloquent orator. 


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And the people shall be oppressed, everyone by another and everyone by his neighbor; the child shall behave himself proudly against the elder, and the base against the honorable." 


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When a man shall take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying, "You have clothing; be you our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand," 


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in that day he shall swear, saying, "I will not be a healer, for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: Make me not a ruler of the people!" 


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For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of His glory. 


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The show of their countenance does witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom; they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves. 


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Say you to the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruits of their doings. 


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As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them! O My people, they that lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths. 


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The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders of His people and the princes thereof: "For you have eaten up the vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your houses. 


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What mean you that you beat My people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor?" says the Lord GOD of hosts. 


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Moreover the LORD saith: "Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet, 


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therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will uncover their secret parts." 


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In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their hair nets and their round ornaments like the moon, 


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And it shall come to pass that instead of sweet smell there shall be stench; and instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of wellset hair, baldness; and instead of a sash, a girding of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty. 


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Jerusalem's Glorious Future<br/>And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name to take away our reproach." 


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The Renewal of Zion <br/>In that day shall the Branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for those who have escaped of Israel.


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And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion and he that remains in Jerusalem shall be called holy -- even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem --


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when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. 


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And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defense. 


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And there shall be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge and for a covert from storm and from rain. 


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God's Disappointing Vineyard; Woes Pronounced on the Faithless<br/>Now will I sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved concerning His vineyard: my Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.


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And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choice vine; and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine press therein. And He looked for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 


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"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between Me and My vineyard. 


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What could have been done more to My vineyard than I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to bring forth good grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 


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"And now, I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. 


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And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." 


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For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah, His pleasant plant. And He looked for judgment, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry. 


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Impending Judgment on Excesses<br/>Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 


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In mine ears said the LORD of hosts: "In truth many houses shall be desolate, even the great and fair, without inhabitant. 


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Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah." 


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Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may pursue strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! 


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And the harp and the viol, and the taboret and pipe, and wine are in their feasts; but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of His hands. 


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Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst. 


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Therefore hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth beyond measure; and their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 


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And the lowly man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled. 


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But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God who is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. 


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Then shall the lambs feed according to their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat. 


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who say, "Let Him make speed and hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it." 


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Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that count darkness as light, and light as darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! 


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Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust; because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 


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Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against His people, and He has stretched forth His hand against them, and has smitten them; and the hills did tremble, and their carcAsses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this, His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 


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And He will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth; and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly. 


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None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken; 


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whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind. 


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Their roaring shall be like a lion; they shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it. 


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And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea; and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow; and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof. 


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Isaiah's Vision and Commission <n>(Called)</n> to Be a Prophet <br/>In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 


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Above it stood the seraphims; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 


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And one cried unto another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." 


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And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 


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Then said I, "Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." 


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Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. 


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And he laid it upon my mouth and said, "Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged." 


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Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then said I, "Here am I. Send me!" 


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And He said, "Go, and tell this people: "`Hear you indeed, but understand not; and see you indeed, but perceive not.' 


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Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed." 


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Then said I, "Lord, how long?" And He answered, "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 


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"But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and shall be eaten, as a teil tree and as an oak whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." 


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Isaiah Sent to King Ahaz<br/>And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. 


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And it was told the house of David, saying, "Syria is confederate with Ephraim." And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. 


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Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, "Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you and Shearjashub <n>(that is, The remnant shall return)</n>, your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the Fuller's Field, 


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and say unto him: `Take heed, and be quiet. Fear not, neither be fainthearted at the two tails of these smoking firebrands -- at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 


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"Let us go up against Judah and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel," 


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For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. 


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And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.'" 


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Isaiah Predicts <n>(Prophecy)</n> the Messiah <n>(Immanuel)</n> <br/>Moreover the LORD spoke again unto Ahaz, saying, 


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And Isaiah said, "Hear you now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 


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Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. 


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For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. 


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The LORD shall bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah: even the king of Assyria." 


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And it shall come to pass in that day that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.


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And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns and upon all bushes. 


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In the same day shall the Lord shave with a hired razor <n>(namely, by those beyond the river, by the king of Assyria)</n> the head and the hair of the feet, and it shall also consume the beard. 


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and it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give, that he shall eat butter, for butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the land. 


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And it shall come to pass in that day in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silverlings, that it shall be even for briers and thorns. 


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With arrows and with bows shall men come thither, because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 


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And on all hills that shall be dug with the mattock, there shall not be a coming thither for fear of briers and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen and for the treading of lesser cattle. 


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Assyria Will Invade the Land<br/>Moreover the LORD said unto me, "Take you a great scroll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz." 


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And I took unto me faithful witnesses to attest: Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.


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And I went unto the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then said the LORD to me, "Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz. 


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For before the child shall have knowledge to cry `My father,' and `My mother,' the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away to the king of Assyria." 


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"Inasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that flow softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son, 


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now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks. 


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And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck. And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel." 


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Associate yourselves, O you people, yet you shall be broken in pieces! And give ear, all you of far countries. Gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and you shall be broken in pieces! 


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Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand, for God is with us. 


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Fear God, Heed His Word <br/>For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, 


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"Say you not, `A confederacy,' to all those to whom this people shall say, `A confederacy'; neither fear you their fear, nor be afraid. 


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And He shall be for you a sanctuary, but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a trap and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 


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And I will wait upon the LORD, who hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him. 


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Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion. 


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And when they shall say unto you, "Seek unto those who have familiar spirits and wizards, who peep and who mutter," should not a people seek unto their God? For the living, to the dead? 


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To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 


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And they shall pass through it sorely beset and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves and curse their king and their God, and look upward; 


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and they shall look unto the earth and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish, and they shall be driven to darkness. 


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The Government of the Promised Son<br/>Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first He lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward more grievously afflicted her by the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. 


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The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined. 


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You have multiplied the nation and not increased the joy; they joy before You according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. 


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For You have broken the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. 


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For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood, but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire. 


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The Birth of the Prince of Peace <br/>For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 


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Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon His Kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. 


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And all the people shall know--even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria" that say in the pride and stoutness of heart: 


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"The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." 


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Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him and join his enemies together, 


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the Syrians before and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 


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Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 


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For wickedness burns as the fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. 


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Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire; no man shall spare his brother. 


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And he shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied; they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm. 


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Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 


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Assyria Shall Be Broken<br/>"Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed 


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to turn aside the needy from judgment and to take away the right from the poor of My people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! 


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And what will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory? 


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Without Me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain." For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still. 


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Arrogant Assyria Also Judged <br/>"Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of Mine anger, and the staff in their hand is Mine indignation! 


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I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. 


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Yet he  means not so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. 


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As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols and whose graven images excelled them of Jerusalem and of Samaria, 


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Therefore it shall come to pass when the Lord has performed His whole work upon Mount Zion and on Jerusalem: "I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his high looks. 


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For he says, "`By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent; and I have removed the bounds of the people and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. 


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And my hand has found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.'" 


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Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood! 


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Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among His fat ones leanness; and under His glory He shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. 


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And the Light of Israel shall be for a fire and his Holy One for a flame; and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day, 


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and shall consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth. 


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The Returning Remnant of Israel <br/>And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again depend upon him that smote them, but shall stand upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. 


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For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return; the consuming decreed shall overflow with righteousness. 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: "O My people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian. He shall smite you with a rod and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt. 


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And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as His rod was upon the sea, so shall He lift it up after the manner of Egypt. 


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And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. 


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They are gone over the passage; they have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.


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As yet shall he remain at Nob that day; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. 


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Behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror; and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. 


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And He shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one. 


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The Reign of Jesse's Offspring; The Righteous Reign of the Messiah<br/>And there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 


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And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD" 


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and shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears. 


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But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. 


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"The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 


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And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.


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And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. 


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They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 


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"And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, who shall stand for an ensign of the people; to It shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest shall be glorious." 


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And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 


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And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 


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The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 


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But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall despoil them of the east together. They shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 


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And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea; and with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams and make men go over dryshod. 


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And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people who shall be left from Assyria, as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. 


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A Hymn of Praise; Thanksgiving for God's Mercies <br/>And in that day you shall say: "O LORD, I will praise You; though You wast angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comforted me. 


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Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also has become my salvation." 


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and in that day shall you say: "Praise the LORD! Call upon His name! Declare His doings among the people; make mention that His name is exalted. 


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Cry out and shout, you inhabitant of Zion! For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of you." 


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The Doom of Babylon Predicted <n>(Proclamed)</n><br/>The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw: 


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"Lift you up a banner upon the high mountain; exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. 


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I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have also called My mighty ones for Mine anger, even them that rejoice in My highness." 


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The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle. 


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They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD and the weapons of His indignation, to destroy the whole land. 


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And they shall be afraid; pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them. They shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth; they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.


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Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 


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For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 


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"And I will punish the world for their evil and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 


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Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts and in the day of His fierce anger. 


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And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man takes up; they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee everyone into his own land. 


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Everyone that is found shall be thrust through; and everyone that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.


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Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be despoiled and their wives ravished.


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"Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. 


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Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.


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And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 


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It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. 


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But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. 


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And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces; and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged." 


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Mercy on Jacob<br/>For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land; and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. 


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And the people shall take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids; and they shall take them captive whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors. 


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Fall of the King of Babylon <br/>And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give you rest from your sorrow and from your fear and from the hard bondage wherein you wast made to serve, 


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The Proverbs Against the King of Babylon <br/>that you shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: "How has the oppressor ceased! The golden city ceased! 


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He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. 


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Yea, the fir trees rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, `Since you are laid down, no hewer has come up against us.' 


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Hell from beneath is moved for you to meet you at your coming; it stirs up the dead for you, even all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 


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All they shall speak and say unto you: `Are you also become weak as we? Are you become like unto us?'


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Your pomp <n>(pride)</n> is brought down to the grave, and the noise of your viols; the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you. 


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The Fall of Lucifer <br/>"How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How are you cut down to the ground <n>(earth)</n>, who did weaken the nations! 


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For you have said in your heart, `I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. 


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They that see you shall narrowly look upon you and consider you, saying, `Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, 


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that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners?' 


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But you are cast out of your grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit, as a carcass trodden under feet. 


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You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land and slain your people. The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. 


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Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers, that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities." 


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Babylon Destroyed <br/>"For I will rise up against them," says the LORD of hosts, "and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and son and grandson," says the LORD. 


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"I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction," says the LORD of hosts. 


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Assyria Destroyed<br/>The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, "Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand; 


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that I will break the Assyrian in My land, and upon My mountains tread him under foot. Then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders." 


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This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. 


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For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who shall disannul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? 


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"Rejoice not you, whole Philistia, because the rod of him that smote you is broken; for out of the serpent's root shall come forth an adder, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. 


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And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill your root with famine, and he shall slay your remnant. 


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Howl, O gate! Cry, O city! You, whole Philistia are dissolved! For there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times." 


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What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? "That the LORD has founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it." 


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Proclamation <n>(Prophecy)</n> Against Moab<br/>The burden of Moab: Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence, because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste and brought to silence, 


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he is gone up to Bajith and to Dibon, the high places, to weep. Moab shall howl over Nebo and over Medeba; on all their heads shall be baldness and every beard cut off. 


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In their streets they shall gird themselves with sackcloth; on the tops of their houses and in their streets everyone shall howl, weeping abundantly. 


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And Heshbon shall cry, and Elealeh; their voice shall be heard even unto Jahaz; therefore the armed soldiers of Moab shall cry out; his life shall be grievous unto him. 


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"My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, a heifer of three years old; for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction. 


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For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate; for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing. 


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Therefore the abundance they have gotten, and that which they have laid up shall they carry away to the Brook of the Willows. 


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For the cry is gone round about the borders of Moab; the howling thereof unto Eglaim and the howling thereof unto Beerelim.


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For the waters of Dimon shall be full of blood; for I will bring more upon Dimon, lions upon him that escapeth from Moab and upon the remnant of the land." 


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Moab Will Be Destroyed<br/>You send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion. 


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For it shall be that as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon. 


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"Take counsel, execute judgment; make your shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, betray not him that wandereth. 


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Let Mine outcasts dwell with you, Moab; be you a covert to them from the face of the despoiler; for the extortioner is at an end, the despoiler ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land. 


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And in mercy shall the throne be established; and He shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment and hastening righteousness." 


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We have heard of the pride of Moab--he is very proud" even of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath; but his lies shall not be so. 


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Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, everyone shall howl; for the foundations of Kirhareseth shall you mourn; surely they are stricken. 


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For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah; the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof. They are come even unto Jazer; they wandered through the wilderness; her branches are stretched out; they are gone over the sea. 


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Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah; I will water you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh, for upon your summer fruits and upon your harvest the shouting has fallen. 


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And gladness is taken away and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting. The treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease. 


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And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail. 


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But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, as the years of a hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble." 


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Proclamation <n>(Prophecy)</n> Against Damascus, Syria, and Israel <br/>The burden of Damascus: "Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 


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The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 


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The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus and the remnant of Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel," says the LORD of hosts. 


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"And in that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean. 


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And it shall be as when the harvestman gathers the corn and reaps the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathers ears in the Valley of Rephaim.


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Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof," says the LORD God of Israel. 


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At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect for the Holy One of Israel. 


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And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the Asherah poles or the sun images. 


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In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel; and there shall be desolation. 


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Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not been mindful of the Rock of your strength, therefore shall you plant pleasant plants, and shall set them with strange slips. 


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In that day shall you make your plant to grow, and in the morning shall you make your seed to flourish; but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. 


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Woe to the multitude of many people, who make a noise like the noise of the seas, and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! 


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The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters; but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 


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And behold, at eventide, trouble; and before the morning, he is no more. This is the portion of them that despoil us, and the lot of them that rob us. 


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Proclamation <n>(Prophecy)</n> Against Ethiopia<br/>Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, 


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that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, "Go, you swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!" 


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All you inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth, see you, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when He blowes a trumpet, hear ye. 


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For so the LORD said unto me: "I will take My rest, and I will consider in My dwelling place, like a clear heat upon herbs and like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest." 


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For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, He shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches. 


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They shall be left together for the fowls of the mountains and to the beasts of the earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them. 


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In that time shall a present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto, a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled--to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion. 


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Proclamation <n>(Prophecy)</n> Against Egypt <br/>The burden of Egypt: Behold, the LORD rides upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at His presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. 


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"And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians; and they shall fight everyone against his brother and everyone against his neighbor, city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. 


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And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof; and they shall seek the idols and the charmers, and them that have familiar spirits and the wizards. 


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And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord, and a fierce king shall rule over them," says the Lord, the LORD of hosts. 


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And they shall turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defense shall be emptied and dried up; the reeds and flags shall wither. 


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The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks shall wither, be driven away, and be no more. 


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The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast hook into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish. 


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Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; the counsel of the wise counselors of Pharaoh has become brutish. How say you unto Pharaoh, "I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings"? 


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Where are they? Where are your wise men? And let them tell you now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts has purposed upon Egypt. 


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The princes of Zoan are become fools; the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof. 


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The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof; and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. 


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In that day shall Egypt be like unto women; and it shall be afraid and fear, because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He shaketh over it. 


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And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt; everyone that makes mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which He has determined against it. 


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Egypt, Assyria, and Israel Blessed<br/>In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called the City of Destruction. 


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In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.


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And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and He shall send them a savior and a great one, and He shall deliver them. 


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And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD and perform it. 


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And the LORD shall smite Egypt; He shall smite and heal it; and they shall return even to the LORD, and He shall be entreated by them and shall heal them. 


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In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. 


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In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, 


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whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, "Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance." 


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The Sign Against Egypt, Ethiopia, and Assyria Will Conquer Them<br/>In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod <n>(when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him)</n>, and fought against Ashdod and took it, 


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at the same time spoke the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put off your shoe from your foot." And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 


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And the LORD said, "As My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, 


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so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 


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And the inhabitants of this isle shall say in that day, `Behold, such is our expectation wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And how shall we escape?'" 


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The Fall of Babylon Proclaimed <n>(Predicted)</n><br/>The burden of the Desert of the Sea: As whirlwinds in the South pass through, so it comes  from the desert, from a terrible land. 


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A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth. Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media! All the sighing thereof have I made to cease. 


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Therefore are my loins filled with pain; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth. I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it. 


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My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me; the night of my pleasure has He turned into fear unto me. 


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And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of Asses and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed. 


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And he cried, "A lion! My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set at my post whole nights. 


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And behold, here comes  a chariot of men with a couple of horsemen!" And he answered and said, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the graven images of her Gods He has broken unto the ground!" 


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O my threshing and the corn of my floor, that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. 


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Proclamation Against Edom <br/>The burden of Dumah: He calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" 


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The watchman said, "The morning cometh, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire ye; return, come." 


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Proclamation Against Arabia<br/>The burden upon Arabia: In the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanites. 


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The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty; they were ready with their bread for him that fled.


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For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow and from the grievousness of war. 


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For thus has the Lord said unto me: "Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Kedar shall fail. 


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And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished. For the LORD God of Israel has spoken it." 


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Proclamation <n>(Prophecy)</n> Against Jerusalem <br/>The burden of the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you are wholly gone up to the housetops? 


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You that are full of stirrings, a tumultuous city, a joyous city; your slain men are not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. 


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All your rulers have fled together; they are bound by the archers. All that are found in you are bound together, who have fled from afar. 


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Therefore said I, "Look away from me; I will be bitter in weeping. Labor not to comfort me, because of the despoiling of the daughter of my people." 


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For it is a day of trouble and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the Valley of Vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. 


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And it shall come to pass that your choice valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. 


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And He uncovered the covering of Judah, and you did look in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest. 


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You have seen also the breaches of the City of David, that they are many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. 


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And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses have you broken down to fortify the wall. 


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You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool; but you have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago. 


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And in that day did the Lord GOD of hosts call to weeping and to mourning, and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth. 


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But behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine! "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die!" 


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And it was revealed in mine ears by the LORD of hosts: "Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till you die," says the Lord GOD of hosts. 


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The Judgment on Shebna <br/>Thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: "Go, get you unto this treasurer, even unto Shebna, who is over the house, and say: 


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What have you here? And whom have you here, that you have hewed you out a sepulcher here, as he that heweth him out a sepulcher on high and that carves out a habitation for himself in a rock? 


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He will surely violently turn and toss you like a ball into a large country. There shall you die, and there the chariots of your glory shall be the shame of your lord's house. 


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And I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your girdle, and I will commit your government into his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 


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And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open and none shall shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. 


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And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. 


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And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups even to all the vessels of flagons. 


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In that day," says the LORD of hosts, "shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off; for the LORD has spoken it." 


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Proclamation <n>(Prophecy)</n> Against Tyre<br/>The burden of Tyre: Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in; from the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. 


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Be still, you inhabitants of the isle, you whom the merchants of Sidon that pass over the sea have replenished. 


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And by great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mare of nations. 


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Be you ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea has spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, "I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men nor bring up virgins." 


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Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? Her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn. 


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Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth? 


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The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. 


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He stretched out His hand over the sea, He shook the kingdoms; the LORD has given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strongholds thereof. 


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And He said, "You shall no more rejoice, O you oppressed virgin, daughter of Sidon. Arise, pass over to Cyprus; there also shall you have no rest." 


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Behold the land of the Chaldeans. This people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for those who dwell in the wilderness. They set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof, and he brought it to ruin. 


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And it shall come to pass in that day that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king; after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as a harlot. 


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"Take a harp, go about the city, you harlot that have been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that you may be remembered." 


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And it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre; and she shall turn to her hire and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth. 


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And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the LORD. It shall not be treasured nor laid up, for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the LORD, to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing. 


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The Coming <n>(Impending)</n> Judgment of the Earth<br/>Behold, the LORD makes the earth empty and makes it waste, and turns it upside down, and scatters abroad the inhabitants thereof. 


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And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest to him. 


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The earth mourneth and fades away; the world languisheth and fades away; the haughty people of the earth do languish.


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The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. 


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Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. 


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When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done. 


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They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing; for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. 


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Therefore glorify you the LORD in the valleys, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea. 


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From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, "My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously, yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously." 


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And it shall come to pass that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that comes  up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare; for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. 


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The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. 


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And it shall come to pass in that day that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. 


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And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. 


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Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before His elders gloriously. 


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The Song of Praise by the Redeemed to God<br/>O LORD, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. 


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For You have made of a city a heap, of a fortified city a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be rebuilt. 


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For You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. 


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You shall bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place, even the heat with the shadow of a cloud; the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low. 


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And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 


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And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. 


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He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth; for the LORD has spoken it. 


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And it shall be said in that day: "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." 


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For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under Him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. 


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And He shall spread forth His hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreads forth his hands to swim; and He shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. 


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And the fortress of the high fort of your walls shall He bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust. 


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A Song of Salvation; A Hymn of Praise<br/>In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. 


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For He brings down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, He lays it low; He lays it low, even to the ground; He brings it even to the dust. 


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Yea, in the way of Your judgments, O LORD, have we waited for You; the desire of our soul is to Your name and to the remembrance of You. 


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With my soul have I desired You in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 


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Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. 


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LORD, when Your hand is lifted up, they will not see; but they shall see and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them. 


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O LORD our God, other lords besides You have had dominion over us; but by You only will we make mention of Your name. 


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They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise; therefore have You visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. 


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You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation. You are glorified; You hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. 


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LORD, in trouble have they visited You, they poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them. 


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As a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs, so have we been in Your sight, O LORD. 


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We have been with child, we have been in pain; we have, as it were, brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. 


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Your dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust; for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. 


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Take Refuge from the Coming Judgment <br/>Come, my people, enter you into your chambers, and shut your doors about you; hide yourself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be past. 


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For, behold, the LORD comes  out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. 


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Israel Will Be Restored<br/>In that day the LORD with His sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. 


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I, the LORD, do keep it; I will water it every moment. Lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 


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Fury is not in Me. Who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them; I would burn them together.


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Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and he shall make peace with Me." 


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He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. 


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Hath He smitten him, as He smote those that smote him? Or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? 


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In measure, when it shoots forth, You will debate with it; He stayeth His rough wind in the day of the east wind. 


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By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin: When he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten asunder, the Asherah poles and sun images shall not stand up. 


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Yet the fortified city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness; there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down and consume the branches thereof. 


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When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off; the women come and set them on fire, for it is a people of no understanding. Therefore He that made them will not have mercy on them, and He that formed them will show them no favor. 


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And it shall come to pass in that day that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. 


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And it shall come to pass in that day that the great trumpet shall be blown; and they shall come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem. 


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Woe <n>(Warning)</n> to Ephraim and Jerusalem <br/>Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! 


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Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. 


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and the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower and as the early fruit before the summer, which when he that looks upon it seeth; while it is yet in his hand he eats it up. 


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In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people, 


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and for a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. 


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But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink; they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. 


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"Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. 


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For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." 


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to whom He said, "This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest," and, "This is the refreshing" -- yet they would not hear. 


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But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little, that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken. 


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Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem, 


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because you have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." 


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A Cornerstone in Zion<br/>Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; he that believes shall not make haste. 


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Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 


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And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it. 


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From the time that it goes forth it shall take you, for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night; and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report." 


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For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. 


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For the LORD shall rise up as in Mount Perazim; He shall be wroth as in the Valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work, and bring to pass His act, His strange act. 


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Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consuming even determined upon the whole earth. 


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When he has made plain the face thereof, does he not cast abroad the dill and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the ryou in their place? 


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For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a care wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the dill is beaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod. 


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Bread corn is beaten, because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. 


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This also comes  forth from the LORD of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. 


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Woe to Jerusalem; The Blindness of Israel <br/>"Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add you year to year; let them kill sacrifices. 


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Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow; and it shall be unto Me as Ariel. 


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And I will camp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with a mound, and I will raise forts against you. 


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And you shall be brought down and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust; and your voice shall be as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust." 


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Moreover the multitude of your strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passes away; yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly. 


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You shall be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire. 


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And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her fortifications, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. 


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It shall even be as when a hungry man dreameth, and behold, he eats; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty. Or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold, he is faint and his soul has appetite. So shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion. 


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The Blindness of Disobedience <br/>Stay yourselves <n>(pause)</n>, and wonder! Cry you out, and cry! They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 


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For the LORD has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes; the prophets and your rulers, the seers has He covered. 


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And the vision of all has become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, "Read this, I pray you"; and he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed." 


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And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, "Read this, I pray you"; and he says, "I am not learned." 


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Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as this people draw near Me with their mouth and with their lips do honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the precept of men, 


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therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." 


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Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD and their works are in the dark, and they say, "Who see us?" and, "Who knows us?" 


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Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay; for shall the work say of him that made it, "He made me not"? Or shall the thing formed say of him that formed it, "He had no understanding"? 


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Future Recovery of Wisdom <br/>Is it not yet a very little while and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? 


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And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. 


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The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 


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For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off-- 


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who make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought. 


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Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: "Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. 


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But when he see his children, the work of Mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify My name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. 


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They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine." 


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The Futility of Relying on <n>(Confidence in)</n> Egypt <br/>"Woe to the rebellious children," says the LORD, "that take counsel, but not of Me, and that cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; 


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that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 


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Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 


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They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor profit, but a shame and also a reproach." 


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The burden of the beasts of the South: Into the land of trouble and anguish, from where come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young Asses, and their treasures upon the humps of camels, to a people that shall not profit them. 


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For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose; therefore have I cried to her concerning this, "Their strength is to sit still." 


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A Rebellious People<br/>Now go, write it before them on a tablet and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever, 


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who say to the seers, "See not," and to the prophets, "Prophesy not unto us right things; speak unto us smooth things; prophesy deceits. 


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Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." 


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Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel: "Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stand thereon, 


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therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes  suddenly at an instant. 


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And he shall break it as the breaking of the potter's vessel that is broken in pieces; he shall not spare, so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water threby out of the pit." 


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For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: "In returning and rest shall you be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength; but you would not. 


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But you said, `No, for we will flee upon horses'; therefore shall you flee! And, `We will ride upon the swift'; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift! 


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One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five shall you flee, till you be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain and as an ensign on a hill." 


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God Will Be Gracious<br/>And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you. For the LORD is a God of judgment; blessed are all they that wait for Him. 


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For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will be very gracious unto you at the voice of your cry; when He shall hear it, He will answer you. 


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And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more, but your eyes shall see your teachers. 


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And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk you in it," when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. 


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You shall defile also the covering of your graven images of silver and the ornament of your molten images of gold. You shall cast them away as a menstruous cloth; you shall say unto it, "Get you hence." 


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Then shall He give the rain of your seed, that you shall sow the ground therewith, and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous. In that day shall your cattle feed in large pastures. 


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The oxen likewise and the young Asses that till the ground shall eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. 


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And there shall be upon every high mountain and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 


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Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of His people and healeth the stroke of their wound. 


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Judgment on Assyria<br/>Behold, the name of the LORD comes  from far, burning with His anger, and the burden thereof is heavy; His lips are full of indignation and His tongue as a devouring fire. 


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And His breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity; and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. 


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You shall have a song as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept, and gladness of heart as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel. 


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And the LORD shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering and tempest and hailstones. 


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And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with taborets and harps; and in battles of weapon shaking will He fight with it. 


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For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared. He has made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, does kindle it. 


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The Folly of Not Trusting God; God, Not Egypt, Will Defend Judah <br/>Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and depend upon horses and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! 


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Yet He also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back His words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the help of them that work iniquity. 


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Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out His hand, both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fail together. 


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God Will Deliver Jerusalem <br/>For thus has the LORD spoken unto me: As the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them; so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion and for the hill thereof. 


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As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending, also He will deliver it; and passing over, He will preserve it. 


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For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. 


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"Then shall the Assyrian fall by the sword, but not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a lowly man, shall devour him; but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. 


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And he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign," says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and His furnace in Jerusalem. 


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A Reign of Righteousness; Women of Jerusalem Warned<br/>Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. 


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And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. 


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The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. 


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For the vile person will speak villainy, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry; and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. 


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The instruments also of the churl are evil; he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks right. 


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Consequences of Complacency<br/>Rise up, you women that are at ease; hear my voice, you careless daughters; give ear unto my speech. 


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Many days and years shall you be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. 


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Tremble, you women that are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones. Strip you and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins; 


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Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers, yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city. 


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Because the palaces shall be forsaken, the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild Asses, a pasture of flocks, 


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until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. 


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The Peace of God's Reign<br/>Then judgment <n>(justice)</n> shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. 


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And the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. 


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And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places 


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Blessed are you that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass. 


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A Prayer in Deep Distress; Salvation for Those Who Trust in God<br/>Woe to you that despoilest, and you wast not despoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with you! When you shall cease to despoil, you shall be wasted; and when you shall make an end of dealing treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you. 


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O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for You; be You their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. 


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At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of Yourself the nations were scattered.


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And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar; as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.


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And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times and strength of salvation; the fear of the LORD is his treasure.


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The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases; he has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he regards no man. 


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The earth mourneth and languisheth; Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down. Sharon is like a wilderness, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits. 


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Impending Judgment on Zion<br/>"Now will I rise," says the LORD; "now will I be exalted; now will I lift up Myself. 


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The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" 


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He that walks righteously and speaks uprightly, he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood and shuts his eyes from seeing evil-- 


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he shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the fortifications of rocks; bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.


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The Land of the Majestic King<br/>Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off.


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Your heart shall meditate terror: "Where is the scribe? Where is the receiver? Where is he that counted the towers?" 


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You shall not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than you canst perceive, of a stammering tongue that you canst not understand. 


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Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. 


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But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. 


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Your tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail; then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey. 


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And the inhabitant shall not say, "I am sick"; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. 


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The LORD's Wrath <n>(Judgment)</n> upon the Nations<br/>Come near, you nations, to hear; and hearken, you people! let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, and all things that come forth from it. 


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For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them; He has delivered them to the slaughter. 


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Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stench shall come up out of their carcAsses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 


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And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falls off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. 


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"For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; behold, it shall come down upon Edom and upon the people of My curse in judgment." 


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The sword of the LORD is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 


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And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. 


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For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. 


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And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. 


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It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever.


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But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it; and He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.


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They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 


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And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of dragons and a court for owls. 


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The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there and find for herself a place of rest. 


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There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay and hatch and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, everyone with her mate. 


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Seek you out of the book of the LORD, and read: No one of these shall fail, none shall lack her mate; for My mouth, it has commanded, and His Spirit, it has gathered them. 


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And He has cast the lot for them, and His hand has divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever; from generation to generation shall they dwell therein. 


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The Future Glory of Zion<br/>The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.


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It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God . 


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Say to them that are of a fearful heart, "Be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you." 


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Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. 


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And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 


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And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. 


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No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon; it shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 


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And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 


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Sennacherib Boasts Against the LORD and Invades Judah<br/>Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.


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And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto King Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the Fuller's Field.


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Then came forth unto him Eliakim, Hilkiah's son, who was over the house, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, Asaph's son, the recorder. 


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And Rabshakeh said unto them, "Say you now to Hezekiah, `Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What confidence is this wherein you trustest? 


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I say, you sayest <n>(but they are but vain words)</n>, "I have counsel and strength for war." Now on whom dost you trust, that you rebellest against me? 


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Lo, you trustest in the staff of this broken reed, in Egypt, whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 


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But if you say to me, "We trust in the LORD our God ," is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this altar"? 


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Now therefore give pledges, I pray you, to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you be able on your part to set riders upon them. 


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How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?


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And have I now come up without the LORD against this land to destroy it? The LORD said unto me: "Go up against this land, and destroy it."'" 


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Then said Eliakim and Shebna and Joah unto Rabshakeh, "Speak, I pray you, unto your servants in the Aramaic language, for we understand it; and speak not to us in the Jews' language in the ears of the people who are on the wall." 


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But Rabshakeh said, "Hath my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men who sit upon the wall, that they may eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?" 


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Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, "Hear you the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 


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Neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us; this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria." 


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Hearken not to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me; and eat you everyone of his vine and everyone of his fig tree, and drink you everyone the waters of his own cistern, 


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until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 


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Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Hath any of the Gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? 


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Where are the Gods of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the Gods of Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?


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Who are they among all the Gods of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'" 


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But they held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, saying, "Answer him not." 


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Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. 


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Isaiah Assures Deliverance; Judah Rescued from Sennacherib<br/>And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD. 


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And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, unto Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz. 


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And they said unto him, "Thus says Hezekiah: `This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. 


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It may be the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'" 


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And Isaiah said unto them, "Thus shall you say unto your master, `Thus says the LORD: Be not afraid of the words that you have heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 


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Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.'" 


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And he heard say concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come forth to make war with you." And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 


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"Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: Let not your God in whom you trustest deceive you, saying, `Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.' 


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Have the Gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the children of Eden who were in Telassar? 


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Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?" 


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And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD.


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"O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubims, You are the God, even You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth. 


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Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to reproach the living God . 


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Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, even You only." 


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The Word of the LORD Concerning Sennacherib<br/>Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Whereas you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, 


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this is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him: `The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you. 


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"`Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? And against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Even against the Holy One of Israel. 


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By your servants have you reproached the Lord, and have said, "By the multitude of my chariots have I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof; and I will enter into the height of his border and the forest of his Carmel. 


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I have dug and drunk water; and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of the besieged places." 


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"`Have you not heard long ago how I have made it, and of ancient times, that I have formed it? Now have I brought it to pass that you should be to lay waste fortified cities into ruinous heaps. 


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Therefore their inhabitants were of small power; they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops and as corn blighted before it be grown up. 


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Because your rage against Me and your tumult have come up into Mine ears, therefore will I put My hook in your nose and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you camest.' 


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"And this shall be a sign unto you: You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, and the second year that which springeth of the same; and in the third year sow you and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. 


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And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.


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For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this. 


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"Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: `He shall not come into this city nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. 


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Sennacherib's Defeat and Death<br/>Then the angel of the LORD went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. 


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And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his God, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat; and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. 


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Hezekiah's Sickness and Healing; Life Extended<br/>In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came unto him and said unto him, "Thus says the LORD: `Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.'" 


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and said, "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in Your sight." And Hezekiah wept sorely. 


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"Go, and say to Hezekiah, `Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add unto your days fifteen years. 


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And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 


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And this shall be a sign unto you from the LORD that the LORD will do this thing that He has spoken:


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Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which has gone down in the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.'" So the sun returned ten degrees by which degrees it had gone down. 


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I said, "In the cutting off of my days I shall go to the gates of the grave; I am deprived of the residue of my years." 


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I said, "I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living; I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 


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Mine age is departed and is removed from me as a shepherd's tent; I have cut off like a weaver my life. He will cut me off with pining sickness; from day even to night will You make an end of me.


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I reckoned till morning that, as a lion, so will He break all my bones; from day even to night will You make an end of me." 


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Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter; I did mourn as a dove; mine eyes fail with looking upward. O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me! 


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What shall I say? He has both spoken unto me, and Himself has done it. I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul. 


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O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit; so will You recover me and make me to live. 


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Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but You have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back. 


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For the grave cannot praise You, death can not celebrate You; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Your truth. 


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The living, the living, he shall praise You, as I do this day; the father to the children shall make known Your truth. 


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The LORD was ready to save me; therefore we will sing my songs with the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.


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For Isaiah had said, "Let them take a lump of figs and lay it for a plaster upon the boil, and he shall recover." 


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Babylonian Captivity of Judah Foretold<br/>At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 


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And Hezekiah was glad with them, and showed them the house of his precious things -- the silver and the gold, and the spices and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not. 


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Then came Isaiah the prophet unto King Hezekiah and said unto him, "What said these men? And from where came they unto you?" And Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon." 


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Then said he, "What have they seen in your house?" And Hezekiah answered, "All that is in mine house have they seen. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them." 


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`Behold, the days come that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left,' says the LORD. 


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`And of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall beget, they shall take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.'" 


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Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "Good is the word of the LORD which you have spoken." He said moreover, "For there shall be peace and truth in my days." 


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God's People Are Comforted; The Majesty of the LORD <br/>"Comfort you, comfort you My people," says your God . 


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"Speak you comfortingly to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins." 


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The voice of him that cries in the wilderness: "Prepare you the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God . 


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Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. 


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And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it." 


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The voice said, "Cry!" And he said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. 


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The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the LORD blowes upon it; surely the people is grass. 


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O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get you up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, "Behold your God !" 


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Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. 


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He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. 


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Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? 


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With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and showed to Him the way of understanding? 


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Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing. 


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The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold and casts silver chains. 


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He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeks unto him a skillful workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.


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Have you not known? Have you not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?


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It is He that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, who stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in, 


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Yea, they shall not be planted, yea, they shall not be sown; yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth. And He shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. 


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Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power; not one faileth. 


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Why sayest you, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel: "My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God "? 


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Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding. 


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but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. 


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Israel Assured of God's Help and Her Final Restoration<br/>"Keep silence before Me, O islands, and let the people renew their strength; let them come near, then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment. 


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"Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to His foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. 


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Who has wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am He." 


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So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote the anvil, saying, "It is ready for the soldering"; and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. 


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You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called you from the chief men thereof, and said unto you, `You are My servant; I have chosen you and not cast you away'-- 


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fear you not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; yea, I will help you; yea, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness. 


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Behold, all they that were incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded; they shall be as nothing, and they that strive with you shall perish. 


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You shall seek them and shall not find them, even them that contended with you. They that war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. 


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"Fear not, you worm Jacob and you men of Israel; I will help you," says the LORD and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. 


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"Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff. 


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You shall fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and you shall rejoice in the LORD, and shall glory in the Holy One of Israel. 


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"When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none and their tongue fails for thirst, I, the LORD, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. 


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I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water.


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I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia tree, and the myrtle and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine and the box tree together, 


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that they may see and know, and consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it. 


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The Futility of Idols<br/>"Produce your cause," says the LORD; "bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob. 


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"Let them bring them forth and show us what shall happen; let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them; or declare us things to come. 


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Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods: yea, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and behold it together. 


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"I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun shall he call upon My name. And he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treads  clay. 


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Who has declared from the beginning, that we may know? And beforetime, that we may say, `He is righteous'? Yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that hears your words. 


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The first shall say to Zion, `Behold, behold them!' And I will give to Jerusalem one that brings good tidings. 


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For I beheld, and there was no man, even among them; and there was no counselor that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. 


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The Servant Comes to Glorify the LORD<br/>"Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, Mine Elect, in whom My soul delighteth: I have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 


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A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench; He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 


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He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He has set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for His law." 


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Thus says God the LORD--He that created the heavens and stretched them out, He that spread forth the earth and that which comes  out of it, He that gives breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: 


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"I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand, and will keep You, and give You for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; 


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to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. 


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I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. 


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"Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them." 


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Praise to the LORD<br/>Sing unto the LORD a new song and His praise from the end of the earth, you that go down to the sea and all that is therein, the isles and the inhabitants thereof. 


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Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar does inhabit. Let the inhabitants of the rock sing; let them shout from the top of the mountains. 


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The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man; He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies. 


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Promise of the LORD's Help<br/>"I have long time held My peace; I have been still and refrained Myself. Now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. 


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I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. 


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And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. 


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They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, `You are our gods.' 


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Who is blind, but My servant? Or deaf, as My messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD's servant?" 


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Israel's Obstinate Disobedience<br/>The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will magnify the law and make it honorable.


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But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses. They are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none says, "Restore." 


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Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers? Did not the LORD, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His ways, neither were they obedient unto His law. 


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Therefore He has poured upon him the fury of His anger and the strength of battle; and it has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. 


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The LORD the Only Redeemer of Israel <br/>But now thus says the LORD who created you, O Jacob, and He that formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. 


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When you pAssest through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walkest through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon you. 


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For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for you. 


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Since you wast precious in My sight, you have been honorable, and I have loved you; therefore will I give men for you and people for your life. 


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I will say to the north,` Give up,' and to the south, `Keep not back.' Bring My sons from far and My daughters from the ends of the earth, 


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even everyone that is called by My name: For I have created him for My glory; I have formed him; yea, I have made him." 


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Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear and say, "It is truth." 


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"You are My witnesses," says the LORD, "and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. 


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I have declared and have saved, and I have shown, when there was no strange God among you; therefore you are My witnesses," says the LORD, "that I am God . 


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Yea, before the day was, I am He, and there is none that can deliver out of My hand; I will work, and who shall turn it back?" 


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Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I have sent to Babylon and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. 


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Who brings forth the chariot and horse, the army and the power <n>(they shall lie down together, they shall not rise; they are extinct, they are quenched as tow)</n>: 


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Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 


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The beast of the field shall honor Me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. 


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Pleading with Unfaithful Israel <br/>"But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; but you have been weary of Me, O Israel. 


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You have not brought Me the lambs or kids of your burnt offerings, neither have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not caused you to serve with an offering, nor wearied you with incense. 


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You have bought Me no sweet cane with money, neither have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices. But you have made Me to serve with your sins; you have wearied Me with your iniquities. 


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"I, even I, am He that blotteth out your transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember your sins. 


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Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse and Israel to reproaches. 


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God's Blessing on Israel and The Folly of Idolatry <br/>"Yet now hear, O Jacob My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. 


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Thus says the LORD that made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: Fear not, O Jacob, My servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. 


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For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon your seed, and My blessing upon your offspring. 


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One shall say, `I am the  LORD's'; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand, `Unto the LORD,' and surname himself by the name of Israel. 


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There Is No Other God<br/>"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the First, and I am the Last, and besides Me there is no God . 


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And who, as I, shall call and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show unto them. 


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Fear you not, neither be afraid. Have not I told you from that time and have declared it? You are even My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Yea, there is no God. I know not any." 


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Idolatry Is Foolishness<br/>They that make a graven image are all of them vanity, and their delectable things shall not profit. And they are their own witnesses; they see not nor know, that they may be ashamed. 


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Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed; and the workmen, they are of men. Let them all be gathered together; let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. 


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The smith with the tongs both works in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth; he drinks no water and is faint. 


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The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line. He fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and makes it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. 


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He heweth him down cedars, and takes the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants an ash, and the rain does nourish it. 


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Then shall it be for a man to burn, for he will take thereof and warm himself. Yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he makes a God, and worshipeth it; he makes it a graven image, and falls down thereto. 


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He burns part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eats flesh; he roasteth roast and is satisfied. Yea, he warmeth himself and says, "Aha, I am warm; I have seen the fire." 


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And the residue thereof he makes a God, even his graven image. He falls down unto it and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my God ." 


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They have not known nor understood; for He has shut their eyes, that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they cannot understand. 


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And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh and eaten it. And shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?" 


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He feeds on ashes: a deceived heart has turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" 


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Israel Is Not Forgotten<br/>"Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for you are My servant. I have formed you; you are My servant. O Israel, you shall not be forgotten by Me. 


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I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and as a cloud, your sins; return unto Me, for I have redeemed you." 


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Sing, O you heavens, for the LORD has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest and every tree therein; for the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel. 


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Judah Will Be Restored<br/>"Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and He that formed you from the womb: I am the LORD that makes all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreads abroad the earth by Myself; 


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that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and makes diviners mad, that turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish; 


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that confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers, that says to Jerusalem, `You shall be inhabited,' and to the cities of Judah, `You shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof'; 


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that says of Cyrus, `He is My shepherd and shall perform all My pleasure,' even saying to Jerusalem, `You shall be built,' and to the temple, `Your foundation shall be laid.' 


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Cyrus, God's Instrument; Salvation Will Come Only by the LORD<br/>"Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the twoleaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut: 


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I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron. 


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And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel. 


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For Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel Mine elect, I have even called you by your name; I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me. 


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I am the LORD, and there is none else; there is no God besides Me. I girded you, though you have not known Me, 


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that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. 


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I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I, the LORD, do all these things. 


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"Drop down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I, the LORD, have created it. 


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"Woe unto him that strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, `What makest you?' or your work, `He has no hands'? 


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Woe unto him that says unto his father, `What begettest you?' or to the woman, `What have you brought forth?' 


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"Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, 'Ask Me of things to come concerning My sons, and concerning the work of My hands command you Me. 


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I have made the earth and created man upon it; I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. 


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I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways; he shall build My city, and he shall let go My captives, not for price nor reward, says the LORD of hosts." 


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The LORD, the Only Savior <br/>Thus says the LORD: "The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto you, and they shall be thine. They shall come after you; in chains they shall come over, and they shall fall down unto you; they shall make supplication unto you, saying, `Surely God is in you, and there is none else; there is no God .'" 


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They shall be ashamed and also confounded, all of them; they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. 


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But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation; you shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.


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For thus says the LORD that created the heavens, God Himself that formed the earth and made it--He has established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited: "I am the LORD, and there is none else. 


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I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, `Seek you Me in vain.' I, the LORD, speak righteousness; I declare things that are right. 


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"Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you that are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge, who set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a God that cannot save. 


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Tell you, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the LORD? And there is no God else besides Me, a just God and a Savior. There is none besides Me. 


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I have sworn by Myself; the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. 


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Surely, shall one say, `In the LORD have I righteousness and strength. Even to Him shall men come, and all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed. 


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The Power of the <n>(Living)</n> LORD <n>(God)</n> and the Weakness of <n>(Dead)</n> Idols<br/>Bel bowes down, Nebo stoopeth; their idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle. Your carriages were heavy laden; they are a burden to the weary beast. 


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They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity. 


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"Hearken unto Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are borne by Me from the belly, who are carried from the womb: 


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And even to your old age I am He, and even to hoary hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. 


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They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a God : they fall down, yea, they worship. 


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They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him and set him in his place, and he standeth. From his place shall he not remove; yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer nor save him out of his trouble. 


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Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 


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declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, `My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,' 


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calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth My counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. 


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I bring near My righteousness; it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not tarry; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory. 


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The Humiliation <n>(Judgment on)</n> of Babylon<br/>"Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground. There is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. 


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Take the millstones and grind meal; uncover your locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers. 


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Your nakedness shall be uncovered; yea, your shame shall be seen; I will take vengeance, and I will not meet you as a man." 


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"Sit you silent, and get you into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the Lady of Kingdoms. 


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I was wroth with My people, I have polluted Mine inheritance and given them into your hand. You did show them no mercy; upon the ancient have you very heavily laid your yoke. 


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And you saidst, `I shall be a lady for ever,' so that you did not lay these things to your heart, neither did remember the latter end of it. 


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"Therefore hear now this, you that are given to pleasures, who dwellest carelessly, who sayest in your heart, `I am, and none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children.' 


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But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their perfection for the multitude of your sorceries, and for the great abundance of your enchantments. 


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For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, `None see me.' Your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, `I am, and none else besides me.' 


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Therefore shall evil come upon you; you shall not know from where it riseth. And mischief shall fall upon you; you shall not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know. 


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"Stand now with your enchantments and with the multitude of your sorceries, wherein you have labored from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail. 


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You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from these things that shall come upon you. 


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Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. 


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Thus shall they be unto you with whom you have labored, even your merchants, from your youth; they shall wander everyone to his quarter. None shall save you. 


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Israel's Unfaithfulness Rebuked and Refined for God's Glory<br/>"Hear you this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel and have come forth out of the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness; 


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for they call themselves of the holy city and stand themselves upon the God of Israel--the LORD of Hosts is His name:


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I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of My mouth, and I showed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. 


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I have even from the beginning declared it to you; before it came to pass I showed it you, lest you should say, `Mine idol has done them, and my graven image, and my molten image has commanded them.' 


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You have heard; see all this, and will not you declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them. 


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They are created now and not from the beginning, even before the day when you heard them not, lest you should say, `Behold, I knew them.' 


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Yea, you heard not; yea, you knewest not, yea, from that time that your ear was not opened; for I knew that you would deal very treacherously and wast called a transgressor from the womb. 


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"For My name's sake will I defer Mine anger, and for My praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off. 


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For Mine own sake, even for Mine own sake, will I do it; for how should My name be polluted? And I will not give My glory unto another. 


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God's Ancient Plan to Redeem Israel <br/>"Hearken <n>(listen)</n> to Me, O Jacob and Israel, My called: I am He; I am the First, I also am the Last. 


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Mine hand also has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has spanned the heavens; when I call unto them, they stand up together. 


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"All you, assemble yourselves and hear. Who among them has declared these things? The LORD has loved him; He will do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm shall be on the Chaldeans. 


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I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous. 


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"Come you near unto Me; hear you this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I; and now the Lord GOD and His Spirit has sent Me." 


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Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your GOD who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go. 


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O that you hadst hearkened to My commandments! Then had your peace been as a river and your righteousness as the waves of the sea.


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Your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your loins like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me." 


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Go you forth from Babylon! Flee you from the Chaldeans! With a voice of singing declare ye; tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say you, "The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob." 


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And they thirsted not when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; He cleaved the rock also, and the waters gushed out. 


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The Messiah <n>(Servant)</n> Is the Light to the Gentiles<br/>"Listen, O isles, unto Me, and hearken, you people from afar! The LORD has called Me from the womb; from the bowels of My mother has He made mention of My name. 


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And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand has He hid Me, and made Me a polished shaft. In His quiver has He hid Me, 


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Then I said, `I have labored in vain; I have spent My strength for nought and in vain; yet surely My judgment is with the LORD, and My work with My God .'" 


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"And now says the LORD that formed Me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, though Israel be not gathered--yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and My God shall be My strength" 


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and He said: `It is a light thing that You should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give You for a light to the Gentiles, that You may be My salvation unto the end of the earth.'" 


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Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to Him whom man despiseth, to Him whom the nation abhorreth, to a Servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD who is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel; and He shall choose You." 


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Thus says the LORD: "In an acceptable time have I heard You, and in a day of salvation have I helped You; and I will preserve You and give You for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages, 


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that You may say to the prisoners, `Go forth,' to them that are in darkness, `Show yourselves.' "They shall feed on the paths, and their pastures shall be in all high places. 


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They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for He that has mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them. 


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Behold, these shall come from far--and lo, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim." 


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Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth! And break forth into singing, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted. 


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God Will Remember Zion <br/>But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me." 


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"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget you. 


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Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth from you.


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Lift up your eyes round about and behold; all these gather themselves together and come to you. As I live," says the LORD, "you shall surely clothe you with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on you as a bride does. 


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For your waste and your desolate places and the land of your destruction shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed you up shall be far away. 


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The children whom you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, `The place is too narrow for me; give place to me that I may dwell.' 


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Then shall you say in your heart, `Who has begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children and am desolate, a captive and removing to and fro? And who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?'" 


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Thus says the Lord GOD : "Behold, I will lift up Mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. 


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And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: They shall bow down to you with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet. And you shall know that I am the LORD, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for Me." 


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But thus says the LORD: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contendeth with you, and I will save your children. 


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And I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine. And all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." 


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The Messiah <n>(Servant)</n> Is Israel's Hope<br/>Thus says the LORD: "Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. 


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Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; their fish stink because there is no water, and dies for thirst. 


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"The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning; He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the learned. 


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I gave My back to the smiters and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not My face from shame and spitting.


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For the Lord GOD will help Me, therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. 


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He is near that justifieth Me. Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is Mine adversary? Let him come near to Me.


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Behold, the Lord GOD will help Me. Who is he that shall condemn Me? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up. 


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"Who is among you that fears the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of His Servant, that walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God . 


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Behold, all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks! Walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that you have kindled. This shall you have from Mine hand: you shall lie down in sorrow. 


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The LORD Comforts Zion; The Faithful Are Called to Courage<br/>"Hearken to Me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the LORD: Look unto the rock from where you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from where you are dug. 


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Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him. 


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For the LORD shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. 


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"Hearken unto Me, My people, and give ear unto Me, O My nation; for a law shall proceed from Me, and I will make My judgment to rest as a light of the people. 


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My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth, and Mine arms shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon Me, and on Mine arm shall they trust. 


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Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished. 


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"Hearken unto Me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law; fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their revilings. 


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For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation from generation to generation." 


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Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are You not It that has cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? 


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Are You not It which has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep, that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? 


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Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. 


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"I, even I, am He that comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass, 


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and forgettest the LORD your Maker, who has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? 


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The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. 


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And I have put My words in your mouth and I have covered you in the shadow of Mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, `You are My people.'" 


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God's Fury Removed<br/>Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, who have drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of His fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out. 


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There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any that takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up.


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These two things are come unto you--who shall be sorry for you?" desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword" by whom shall I comfort you? 


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Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net; they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God . 


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Thus says your Lord the LORD, and your God that pleads the cause of His people: "Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no more drink it again. 


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But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict you, who have said to your soul, `Bow down, that we may go over.' And you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over." 


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God Will Restore <n>(Redeem)</n> Jerusalem <br/>Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion! Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. 


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Shake yourself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. 


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For thus says the LORD: "You have sold yourselves for nought; and you shall be redeemed without money." 


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For thus says the Lord GOD : "My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 


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Now therefore, what have I here," says the LORD, "that My people are taken away for nought? They that rule over them make them to howl," says the LORD, "and My name continually every day is blasphemed. 


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Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shall know in that day that I am He that does speak. Behold, it is I." 


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How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publisheth peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that says unto Zion, "Your God reigns!" 


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Your watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. 


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Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. 


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The LORD has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God .


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depart you, depart you, go you out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. 


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For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward. 


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The Sin-Bearing Servant<br/>"Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 


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As many as were astonished at you--His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men" 


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so shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him. For that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider." 


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The Sin-Bearing Messiah<br/>Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?


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For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. 


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He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. 


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Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 


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But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. 


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All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.


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He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth; He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. 


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He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of My people was He stricken.


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And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. 


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Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When you shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 


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He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied. By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. 


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Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He has poured out His soul unto death. And He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. 


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A Promise <n>(Covenant)</n> of Everlasting <n>(Perpetual)</n> Kindness of Peace<br/>"Sing, O barren, you that did not bear! Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife," says the LORD. 


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Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations; spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. 


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For you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left, and your seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 


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"Fear not; for you shall not be ashamed; neither be you confounded, for you shall not be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more. 


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For your Maker is your husband" the LORD of hosts is His name" and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called. 


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For the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you wast refused," says your God . 


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In a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, says the LORD your Redeemer. 


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"For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with you nor rebuke you. 


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For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed," says the LORD that has mercy on you. 


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"O you afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors and lay your foundations with sapphires. 


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And I will make your windows of agates and your gates of rubies, and all your borders of pleasant stones. 


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In righteousness shall you be established; you shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near you. 


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Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by Me; whosoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake. 


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Behold, I have created the smith that blowes the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 


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No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of Me," says the LORD. 


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An Invitation to Abundant Life; A Free Offer of Mercy to All <br/>"Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come you to the waters; and he that has no money, come you, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 


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Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. 


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Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. 


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Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that knew not you shall run unto you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you." 


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Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. 


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"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. 


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For as the rain comes  down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 


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so shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: It shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. 


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"For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 


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Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." 


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Salvation for the Gentiles<br/>Thus says the LORD, "Keep you judgment, and do justice; for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. 


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Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man that lays hold on it; who keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil." 


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Neither let the son of the stranger, that has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, "The LORD has utterly separated me from His people"; neither let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." 


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For thus says the LORD: "Unto the eunuchs that keep My Sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant, 


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even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.


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Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the LORD to serve Him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants, everyone that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and takes hold of My covenant, 


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even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar, for Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." 


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The Lord GOD which gathers the outcasts of Israel says, "Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him." 


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Israel's Irresponsible Leaders<br/>All you beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all you beasts in the forest. 


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His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. 


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Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand; they all look to their own way, everyone for his gain, from his quarter. 


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"Come ye," say they, "I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant." 


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Condemnation of Israel's <n>(Futile)</n> Idolatry<br/>The righteous perisheth, and no man lays it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. 


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Against whom do you sport yourselves? Against whom make you a wide mouth and draw out the tongue? Are you not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, 


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inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks? 


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Among the smooth stones of the stream is your portion; they, they are your lot. Even to them have you poured a drink offering, you have offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these? 


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Upon a lofty and high mountain have you set your bed; even thither wentest you up to offer sacrifice.


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Behind the doors also and the posts have you set up your remembrance; for you have uncovered yourself to another than Me, and are gone up; you have enlarged your bed and made you a covenant with them; you lovedst their bed where you saw it. 


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And you wentest to the king with ointment, and did increase your perfumes, and did send your messengers far off, and did debase yourself even unto hell. 


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You are wearied in the greatness of your way; yet saidst you not, `There is no hope.' You have found the life of your hand; therefore you wast not grieved. 


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"And of whom have you been afraid or feared, that you have lied, and have not remembered Me, nor laid it to your heart? Have not I held My peace even of old, and you fear Me not? 


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When you criest, let your companies deliver you; but the wind shall carry them all away, vanity shall take them. But he that puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy mountain, 


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Healing for the Backslider<br/>And shall say, `Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way; take up the stumbling block out of the way of My people.'" 


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For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. 


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For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls which I have made. 


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For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth and smote him; I hid Me and was wroth, and he went on waywardly in the way of his heart. 


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I have seen his ways and will heal him; I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. 


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I create the fruit of the lips; peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near," says the LORD; "and I will heal him. 


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A Description of True Religion : Fasting that Pleases God<br/>"Cry aloud, spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet! And show My people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. 


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Yet they seek Me daily and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God . 


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`Why have we fasted,' say they, `and You see not? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you take no note?' Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exact all your labors. 


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Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. 


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Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? 


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"Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? 


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Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house?--when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you hide not yourself from your own flesh? 


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Then shall your light break forth as the morning, and your health shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rearward. 


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Then shall you call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, `Here I am.' If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the putting forth of the finger and speaking vanity, 


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and if you draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall your light rise in obscurity and your darkness be as the noonday. 


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And the LORD shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and make fat your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. 


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And they that shall be of you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Paths to dwell in. 


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"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, 


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then shall you delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it." 


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Corruption Separates the Nation from God<br/>Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. 


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But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. 


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For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness. 


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None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth; they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. 


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They hatch adders' eggs and weave the spider's web; he that eats of their eggs dies, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper. 


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Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works; their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. 


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Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. 


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The way of peace they know not, and there is no judgment in their goings; they have made them crooked paths; whosoever goes therein shall not know peace. 


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Sin Confessed<br/>Therefore is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us; we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. 


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We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes; we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. 


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We all roar like bears, and mourn sore like doves; we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. 


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For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them: 


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in transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 


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And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 


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Yea, truth faileth, and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey. And the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. 


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The Redeemer of Zion<br/>And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his arm brought salvation unto Him, and his righteousness, it sustained Him. 


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For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. 


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According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompense. 


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So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. 


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"And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob," says the LORD. 


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"As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD; "My spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed's seed," says the LORD, "from henceforth and for ever." 


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The Gentiles Bless Zion and The Future Glory of Zion<br/>Arise, shine, for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. 


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For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth and gross darkness the people; but the LORD shall arise upon you, and His glory shall be seen upon you. 


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"Lift up your eyes round about and see; all they gather themselves together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side. 


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Then you shall see and flow together, and your heart shall fear and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come unto you. 


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The multitude of camels shall cover you, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall show forth the praises of the LORD. 


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All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto you, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto you; they shall come up with acceptance on Mine altar, and I will glorify the house of My glory. 


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Surely the isles shall wait for Me--and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you. 


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"And the sons of strangers shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister unto you; for in My wrath I smote you, but in My favor have I had mercy on you. 


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Therefore your gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night, that men may bring unto you the wealth of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. 


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For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted. 


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The glory of Lebanon shall come unto you, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious. 


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The sons also of them that afflicted you shall come bending unto you, and all they that despised you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you, the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. 


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"Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through you, I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. 


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You shall also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shall suck the breast of kings; and you shall know that I the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. 


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"For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood, brass, and for stones, iron. I will also make your officers peace and your exactors righteousness. 


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Violence shall no more be heard in your land, wasting nor destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise. 


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God the Glory of His People <br/>The sun shall be no more your light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto you; but the LORD shall be unto you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. 


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Your sun shall no more go down, neither shall your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. 


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Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified. 


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A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation; I, the LORD, will hasten it in his time." 


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The Good News of Salvation<br/>"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, 


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To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn, 


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To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified." 


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And they shall build the wastes of old, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. 


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And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. 


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But you shall be named the Priests of the LORD; men shall call you the Ministers of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves. 


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For your shame you shall have double, and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be unto them. 


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"For I, the LORD, love judgment; I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 


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And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the people; all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed." 


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I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall be joyful in my God. For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. 


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For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. 


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Assurance of Zion's <n>(Jerusalem's)</n> Salvation <n>(Deliverance)</n>For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns. 


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And the Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. 


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You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God . 


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You shall no more be termed Forsaken, neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called Hephzibah and your land Beulah: for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. 


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For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. 


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"I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who shall never hold their peace day nor night." You that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, 


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The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength: "Surely I will no more give your corn to be meat for your enemies, and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine for which you have labored; 


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but they that have gathered it shall eat it and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness." 


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Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. 


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Behold, the LORD has proclaimed unto the end of the world: "Say you to the daughter of Zion, `Behold, your salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with Him, and His work before Him.'" 


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And they shall call them the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD; and you shall be called Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken. 


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The LORD in Judgment and Salvation<br/>Who is this that comes  from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." 


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"I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the people there was none with Me. For I will tread them in Mine anger and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment. 


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And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore Mine own arm brought salvation unto Me, and My fury, it upheld Me. 


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And I will tread down the people in Mine anger, and make them drunk in My fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth." 


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God's Mercy Remembered <br/>I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses. 


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In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old. 


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But they rebelled and vexed His holy Spirit; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. 


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Then He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people, saying, "Where is He that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock? Where is He that put His holy Spirit within him, 


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That led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, dividing the water before them to make Himself an everlasting name, 


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As a beast goes down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest; so did You lead Your people, to make Yourself a glorious name. 


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A Prayer of Penitence<br/>Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Your holiness and of Your glory. Where is Your zeal and Your strength, the sounding of Your heart and of Your mercies toward me? Are they restrained? 


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Doubtless You are our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not. You, O LORD, are our father, our Redeemer; Your name is from everlasting. 


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O LORD, why have You made us to err from Your ways, and hardened our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants' sake, the tribes of Your inheritance. 


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The people of your holiness have possessed it but a little while; our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.


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A Prayer for Help<br/>Oh, that You would rend the heavens, that You would come down, that the mountains might flow down at Your presence-- 


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as when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil-- to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence! 


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When You did fearsome things which we looked not for, You camest down, the mountains flowed down at Your presence. 


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For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, besides you, what He has prepared for him that  waits for Him. 


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You meetest him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember You in Your ways. Behold, You are wroth, for we have sinned; in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. 


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But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 


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And there is none that calls upon Your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of You; for You have hid Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities. 


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But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and we all are the work of Your hand. 


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Be not sorely wroth, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever; behold, see, we beseech You, we are all Your people. 


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Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised You, is burned up with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste. 


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Will You refrain Yourself for these things, O LORD? Will You hold Your peace and afflict us very sore? 


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The Righteousness of God's Judgment - The Rebellious Will Be Punished <br/>"I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, `Behold Me, behold Me,' unto a nation that was not called by My name. 


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I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walks in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; 


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A people that provoketh Me to anger continually to My face, that sacrificeth in gardens and burns incense upon altars of brick; 


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who remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 


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who say, `Stand by yourself; come not near to me, for I am holier than you!' These are a smoke in My nose, a fire that burns all the day. 


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Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense--even recompense into their bosom" 


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your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together," says the LORD, "who have burned incense upon the mountains and blasphemed Me upon the hills; therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom." 


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Thus says the LORD, "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, `Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it,' so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all. 


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And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of My mountains; and Mine elect shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there. 


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And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for My people that have sought Me. 


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"But you are they that forsake the LORD, that forget My holy mountain, that prepare a table for that Gad, and that furnish the drink offering unto that Meni. 


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Therefore will I number you to the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before Mine eyes and did choose that wherein I delighted not." 


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty: behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed. 


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Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. 


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And you shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen, for the Lord GOD shall slay you and call His servants by another name, 


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that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth, and he that swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth, because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from Mine eyes. 


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The Glorious New Creation<br/>"For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 


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But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. 


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And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 


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There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled his days; for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. 


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And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.


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They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 


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They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them. 


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And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. 


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The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain," says the LORD." 


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Zion's Future Hope; True Worship and False<br/>Thus says the LORD, "The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you build unto Me? And where is the place of My rest? 


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For all those things has Mine hand made, and all those things have been," says the LORD. "But to this man will I look: even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word. 


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"He that kills an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offers an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burns incense, as if he blessed an idol-- yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations. 


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I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them, because when I called, none did answer, when I spoke, they did not hear; but they did evil before Mine eyes and chose that in which I delighted not." 


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The LORD Vindicates Zion <br/>Hear the word of the LORD, you that tremble at His word: "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name's sake, said, `Let the LORD be glorified, when He shall appear to your joy'; and they shall be ashamed." 


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A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendereth recompense to His enemies. 


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Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. 


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Shall I bring to birth and not cease to bring forth?" says the LORD. "Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb?" says your God . 


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"Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her; 


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that you may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory." 


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For thus says the LORD, "Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream; then shall you suck, you shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. 


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The Reign and Indignation of God<br/>And when you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb; and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward His servants, and His indignation toward His enemies. 


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For behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire. 


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For by fire and by His sword will the LORD plead with all flesh; and the slain of the LORD shall be many.


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"They that sanctify themselves and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh and the abomination and the mouse, shall be consumed together," says the LORD. 


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"For I know their works and their thoughts. It shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory. 


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And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those of them who escape unto the nations: to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud who draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off who have not heard My fame, neither have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles. 


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And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the LORD out of all nations, upon horses and in chariots and in litters, and upon mules and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem," says the LORD, "as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD. 


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"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me," says the LORD, "so shall your seed and your name remain. 


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And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me," says the LORD. 


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"And they shall go forth and look upon the carcAsses of the men that have transgressed against Me; "for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 


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Jeremiah Called to Be a Priest<br/>The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 


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to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 


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It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. 


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"Before I formed you in the belly I knew you, and before you camest forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations." 


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But the LORD said unto me, "Say not, `I am a child,' for you shall go to all whom I shall send you, and whatsoever I command you you shall speak. 


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Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. 


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See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant." 


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Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, "Jeremiah, what see you?" And I said, "I see a rod of an almond tree." 


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And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, "What see you?" And I said, "I see a seething pot, and the face thereof is toward the north." 


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Then the LORD said unto me, "Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 


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For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north," says the LORD; "and they shall come and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. 


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And I will utter My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. 


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You therefore gird up your loins, and arise and speak unto them all that I command you. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound you before them. 


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For behold, I have made you this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land -- against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land. 


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And they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you," says the LORD, "to deliver you." 


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Israel's Sufferings the Result of Sin; God's Case Against Israel<br/>Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 


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"Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, `Thus says the LORD: "`I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals, when you wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. 


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Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them,'" says the LORD. 


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Thus says the LORD: "What iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain? 


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Neither said they, `Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt?' 


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And I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when you entered, you defiled My land and made Mine heritage an abomination. 


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The priests said not, `Where is the LORD?' And they that handle the law knew Me not; the pastors also transgressed against Me; and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. 


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"Therefore I will yet plead with you," says the LORD, "and with your children's children will I plead. 


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For pass over to the isles of Chittim and see; and send unto Kedar and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. 


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Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But My people have changed their Glory for that which does not profit. 


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Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be you very desolate," says the LORD. 


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"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn them out cisterns--broken cisterns that can hold no water. 


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The young lions roared at him and yelled, and they made his land waste; his cities are burned without inhabitant. 


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Have you not procured this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God when He led you by the way? 


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And now what have you to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what have you to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? 


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Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that the fear of Me is not in you," says the Lord GOD of hosts. 


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"For of olden time I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; and you saidst, `I will not transgress,' when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wanderest, playing the harlot. 


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Yet I had planted you, a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me? 


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For though you wash you with soda and take you much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before Me," says the Lord GOD . 


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"How canst you say, `I am not polluted; I have not gone after the Baalim'? See your way in the valley; know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways, 


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a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure. In her need who can turn her away? All they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. 


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Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you saidst, `There is no hope; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.' 


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"As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed--they, their kings, their princes, and their priests and their prophets, 


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saying to a stock, `You are my father,' and to a stone, `You have brought me forth.' For they have turned their back unto Me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, `Arise, and save us!' 


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But where are your Gods that you have made you? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah. 


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"In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a destroying lion. 


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O generation, see you the word of the LORD! Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? A land of darkness? Why say My people, `We are lords; we will come no more unto You'? 


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Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number. 


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Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents; I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these. 


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Yet you sayest, `Because I am innocent, surely His anger shall turn from me.' Behold, I will plead with you because you sayest, `I have not sinned.' 


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Why gaddest you about so much to change your way? You also shall be ashamed of Egypt as you wast ashamed of Assyria.


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Yea, you shall go forth from him with your hands upon your head; for the LORD has rejected your confidences, and you shall not prosper in them. 


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Israel Is Shameless and Judah Urged to Repent <br/>"They say, `If a man put away his wife, and she go from him and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that land be greatly polluted?' But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to Me," says the LORD. 


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"Lift up your eyes unto the high places, and see where have you not been lain with. By the wayside have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your whoredoms and with your wickedness. 


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Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain. And you had a whore's forehead; you refused to be ashamed. 


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Will He reserve His anger for ever? Will He keep it to the end?' Behold, you have spoken, and done evil things as you couldest." 


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A Call to Repentance <br/>The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king: "Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot. 


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And I said after she had done all these things, `Return you unto Me.' But she returned not, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 


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And I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 


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And it came to pass, because she made so light of her whoredom, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 


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And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned unto Me with her whole heart, but feignedly," says the LORD. 


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And the LORD said unto me, "The backsliding Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah. 


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Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: "`Return, you backsliding Israel,' says the LORD, `and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful,' says the LORD, `and I will not keep anger for ever. 


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Only acknowledge your iniquity: that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice,' says the LORD. 


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`Turn, O backsliding children,' says the LORD, `for I am married unto you; and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 


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And I will give you pastors according to Mine heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.' 


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"And it shall come to pass when you be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says the LORD, "they shall say no more, `The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' Neither shall it come to mind, neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it, neither shall that be done any more. 


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At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. 


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In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers. 


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"But I said, `How shall I put you among the children and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations?' And I said, `You shall call Me "My Father," and shall not turn away from Me.' 


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Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel," says the LORD. 


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A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel; for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God . 


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"Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." "Behold, we come unto You, for You are the LORD our God . 


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Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.


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For shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth -- their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 


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We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God ." 


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Jeremiah Laments over Judah<br/>"If you will return, O Israel," says the LORD, "return unto Me; and if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, then shall you not be removed. 


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And you shall swear, `The LORD liveth,' in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him shall they glory." 


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For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. 


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Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. 


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An Imminent Invasion<br/>"Declare you in Judah and publish in Jerusalem, and say, `Blow you the trumpet in the land!' Cry, gather together and say, `Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities!' 


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Set up the standard toward Zion. Retire, stay not! For I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction." 


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The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way. He has gone forth from his place to make your land desolate; and your cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant. 


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For this, gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl; for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us. 


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"And it shall come to pass at that day," says the LORD, "that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder." 


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Then said I, "Ah, Lord GOD! Surely You have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, `You shall have peace,' whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul." 


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At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem: "A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of My people -- not to fan, nor to cleanse -- 


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even a full wind from those places shall come unto Me. Now also will I give sentence against them." 


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Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles! Woe unto us, for we are despoiled! 


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O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you? 


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"Make you mention to the nations. Behold, publish against Jerusalem that watchers come from a far country and give out their voice against the cities of Judah. 


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As keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has been rebellious against Me," says the LORD. 


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"Your way and your doings have procured these things unto you: this is your wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto your heart." 


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Sorrow for the Doomed Nation<br/>My heart, my heart! I am pained at my very heart! My heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. 


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Destruction upon destruction is cried, for the whole land is despoiled; suddenly are my tents despoiled, and my curtains in a moment. 


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"For My people are foolish, they have not known Me; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge." 


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I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD and by His fierce anger. 


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For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black, because I have spoken it; I have purposed it and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it. 


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The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets and climb up upon the rocks; every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein. 


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And when you are despoiled, what will you do? Though you clothest yourself with crimson, though you deckest you with ornaments of gold, though you rendest your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair. Your lovers will despise you; they will seek your life. 


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For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion that bewails herself, that spreads her hands, saying, `Woe is me now, for my soul is wearied because of murderers!' 


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The Justice of God's Judgment; The Sins of Judah Outlined<br/>"Run you to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now and know, and seek in the broad places thereof if you can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeks the truth, and I will pardon it. 


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O LORD, are not Your eyes upon the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. 


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Therefore I said, "Surely these are poor, they are foolish; for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God . 


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I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God ." But these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds. 


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Therefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall despoil them; a leopard shall watch over their cities. Everyone that goes out thence shall be torn in pieces, because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased. 


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"How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me, and sworn by them that are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses. 


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Shall I not visit for these things?" says the LORD. "And shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 


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"Go you up upon her walls and destroy, but make not a full end; take away her battlements, for they are not the LORD's. 


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For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against Me," says the LORD. 


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They have belied the LORD, and said, "It is not He; neither shall evil come upon us, neither shall we see sword nor famine. 


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Therefore, thus says the LORD God of hosts: "Because you speak this word, behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. 


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Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel," says the LORD. "It is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understandest what they say. 


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And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees. They shall impoverish your fortified cities, wherein you trusted, with the sword. 


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And it shall come to pass when you shall say, `Why does the LORD our God all these things unto us?' Then shall you answer them, `As you have forsaken Me and served strange Gods in your land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.' 


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Hear now this, O foolish people and without understanding, who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not: 


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Fear you not Me?" says the LORD. "Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? 


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Neither say they in their heart, `Let us now fear the LORD our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter in his season; He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.' 


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For among My people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as he that sets snares; they set a trap, they catch men. 


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As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; therefore they have become great and have waxed rich. 


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They have waxed fat, they shine; yea, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 


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Shall I not visit for these things?" says the LORD. "Shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 


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The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and My people love to have it so. And what will you do in the end thereof? 


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Impending Destruction <n>(of Judah)</n> from the North<br/>"O you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem! And blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Bethhaccerem! For evil appears out of the north, and great destruction. 


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The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed everyone in his place." 


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"Prepare you war against her! Arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe unto us! For the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. 


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For thus has the LORD of hosts said: "Hew you down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her. 


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As a fountain casts out her waters, so she casts out her wickedness. Violence and spoil are heard in her; before Me continually are grief and wounds. 


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Be you instructed, O Jerusalem, lest My soul depart from you; lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited." 


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Thus says the LORD of hosts: "They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine; turn back your hand as a grapegatherer into the baskets." 


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To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hearken; behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it. 


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Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in. "I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days. 


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And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out My hand upon the inhabitants of the land," says the LORD. 


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"For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest, everyone deals falsely. 


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They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightingly, saying, `Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. 


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Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore they shall fall among them that fall; at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down," says the LORD. 


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Thus says the LORD: "Stand you in the highways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, `We will not walk therein.' 


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Also I set watchmen over you, saying, `Hearken to the sound of the trumpet!' But they said, `We will not hearken.' 


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Hear, O earth: Behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto My words nor to My law, but rejected it. 


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To what purpose comes  there to Me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto Me." 


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Therefore thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish." 


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Thus says the LORD: "Behold, a people comes  from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth. 


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They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy. Their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses set in array as men for war against you, O daughter of Zion." 


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We have heard the fame thereof; our hands wax feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, and pain as of a woman in travail. 


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Go not forth into the field nor walk by the way, for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side. 


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O daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes. Make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the despoiler shall suddenly come upon us. 


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They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders; they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. 


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The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed by the fire; the founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away. 


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Jeremiah Calls for Repentance <n>(From)</n> Trusting in Lying Words<br/>The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 


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"Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word and say, `Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD! 


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Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 


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Trust you not in lying words, saying, "The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these." 


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For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 


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if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other Gods to your hurt, 


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then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever. 


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Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other Gods whom you know not, 


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and come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, "We are delivered" -- to do all these abominations? 


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Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, says the LORD. 


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"`But go you now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 


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And now, because you have done all these works, says the LORD, and I spoke unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not, and I called you, but you answered not, 


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therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. 


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And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.' 


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Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you. 


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The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 


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Do they provoke Me to anger? says the LORD. Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?


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Therefore thus says the Lord GOD : Behold, Mine anger and My fury shall be poured out upon this place -- upon man and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn and shall not be quenched. 


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"`Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices and eat flesh. 


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For I spoke not unto your fathers nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. 


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But this thing commanded I them, saying, "Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you." 


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But they hearkened not nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. 


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Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 


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Yet they hearkened not unto Me nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck; they did worse than their fathers.' 


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"Therefore you shall speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to you; you shall also call unto them, but they will not answer you. 


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Judgment on Obscene Religion<br/>But you shall say unto them, `This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receives correction. Truth has perished and is cut off from their mouth. 


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"`Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath. 


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"`For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the LORD. They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. 


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And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into My heart. 


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Therefore behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place. 


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And the carcAsses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.


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Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall be desolate. 


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Jeremiah Mourns for His People<br/>"`At that time, says the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. 


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And they shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor be buried: they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. 


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And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.' 


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The Peril of False Teaching <br/>"Moreover you shall say unto them, `Thus says the LORD: "`Shall they fall and not arise? Shall he turn away and not return? 


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Why then has this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. 


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I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright; no man repented of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Everyone turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. 


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Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of the LORD. 


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"`How do you say, "We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us"? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. 


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The wise men are ashamed; they are dismayed and taken. Lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD: and what wisdom is in them? 


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Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them. For everyone from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even unto the priest everyone deals falsely. 


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For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightingly, saying "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. 


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Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says the LORD. 


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"`I will surely consume them, says the LORD. There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.'" 


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Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there. For the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. 


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The snorting of His horses was heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His strong ones. For they have come and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those that dwell therein. 


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"For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you," says the LORD. 


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The Prophet Mourns for the People<br/>When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint within me. 


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Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people, because of them that dwell in a far country: "Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her?" "Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven images and with strange vanities?" 


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Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?


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Disobedience Brings God's Judgment <br/>Oh, that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 


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Oh, that I had in the wilderness a lodging place for wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. 


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"And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not Me," says the LORD. 


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"Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. 


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And they will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. 


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Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, I will melt them and try them; for how else shall I do for the daughter of My people? 


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Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lies in wait. 


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Shall I not visit them for these things?" says the LORD. "Shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" 


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For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast have fled; they are gone. 


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"And I will make Jerusalem heaps and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant." 


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Who is the wise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? For why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through? 


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And the LORD says, "Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, neither walked therein, 


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but have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after the Baalim, which their fathers taught them." 


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Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them water of gall to drink. 


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I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send a sword after them till I have consumed them." 


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The People Mourn in Judgment<br/>Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider you, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for skillful women, that they may come. 


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And let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with waters. 


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For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion: `How are we despoiled! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.'" 


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Yet hear the word of the LORD, O you women, and let your ear receive the word of His mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation. 


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For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. 


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Speak, "Thus says the LORD: `Even the carcAsses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.'" 


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Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches. 


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But let him that glorieth glory in this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight," says the LORD. 


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"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will punish all them that are circumcised with the uncircumcised-- 


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Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart." 


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Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. 


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For the customs of the people are vain; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 


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They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. 


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They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not; they must be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good." 


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who would not fear You, O King of nations? For to You does it appertain, inasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto You. 


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Silver beaten into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman and of the hands of the founder. Blue and purple is their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men. 


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But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and an everlasting King. At His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. 


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"Thus shall you say unto them: `The Gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.'" 


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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 heavens by His discretion. 


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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 lightning with rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasuries. 


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Every man is brutish in 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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The Coming Captivity of Judah <br/>Gather up your wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress. 


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For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so." 


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Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is grievous; but I said, "Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it." 


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My tabernacle is despoiled, and all my cords are broken; my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. 


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For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD; therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. 


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Behold, the noise of the clamor is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons. 


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O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walks to direct his steps. 


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Pour out Your fury upon the heathen that know You not, and upon the families that call not on Your name; for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate. 


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"Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 


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and say you unto them, `Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, 


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which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace, saying, "Obey My voice, and do them, according to all which I command you; so shall you be My people and I will be your God ," 


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that I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.'" Then answered I, and said, "So be it, O LORD." 


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Then the LORD said unto me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, `Hear you the words of this covenant and do them. 


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For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, "Obey My voice." 


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Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked everyone in the imagination of their evil heart. Therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not.'" 


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And the LORD said unto me, "A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 


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They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear My words, and they went after other Gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers. 


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Therefore thus says the LORD: `Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto Me, I will not hearken unto them. 


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Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go and cry unto the Gods unto whom they offer incense; but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.


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For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.' 


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"Therefore pray not you for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto Me for their trouble. 


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What has My beloved to do in Mine house, seeing she has wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from you? When you do evil, then you rejoicest. 


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The LORD called your name, `A Green Olive Tree,' fair and of goodly fruit. With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. 


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For the LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger in offering incense unto Baal." 


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Jeremiah's Life Threatened <br/>And the LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it; then You showed me their doings. 


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But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered." 


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But, O LORD of hosts, who judgest righteously, who triest the reins and the heart, let me see Your vengeance on them, for unto You have I revealed my cause. 


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"Therefore thus says the LORD of the men of Anathoth, who seek your life, saying, `Prophesy not in the name of the LORD, that you die not by our hand'-- 


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therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: `Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine. 


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And there shall be no remnant of them; for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.'" 


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Jeremiah's Complaint <n>(Question)</n> and God's Answer<br/>Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You; yet let me talk with You of Your judgments: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all they happy that deal very treacherously? 


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You have planted them, yea, they have taken root; they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouth, but far from their reins. 


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But You, O LORD, know me; You have seen me and tried mine heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter. 


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How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts are consumed, and the birds, because they said, "He shall not see our last end." 


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The LORD Answers Jeremiah<br/>"If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, then how canst you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, wherein you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the swelling of the Jordan? 


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For even your brethren and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yea, they have called a multitude after you; believe them not, though they speak fair words unto you. 


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"I have forsaken Mine house, I have left Mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies. 


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Mine heritage is unto Me as a lion in the forest: it cries out against Me; therefore have I hated it.


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Mine heritage is unto Me as a speckled bird: the birds round about are against her. Come you, assemble all the beasts of the field; come to devour. 


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Many pastors have destroyed My vineyard, they have trodden My portion under foot, they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. 


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They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto Me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart. 


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The despoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness; for the sword of the LORD shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land. No flesh shall have peace.


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They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns; they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit; and they shall be ashamed of your produce because of the fierce anger of the LORD. 


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"Thus says the LORD: Against all Mine evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. 


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And it shall come to pass after I have plucked them out, I will return and have compassion on them, and will bring them back, every man to his heritage and every man to his land. 


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And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, `The LORD liveth,' as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then shall they be built in the midst of My people. 


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Symbol of the Linen Sash<br/>Thus says the LORD unto me, "Go and get you a linen girdle, and put it upon your loins, and put it not in water." 


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"Take the girdle that you have got, which is upon your loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole of the rock." 


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And it came to pass after many days, that the LORD said unto me, "Arise, go to the Euphrates and take the girdle from thence, which I commanded you to hide there." 


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Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and took the girdle from the place where I had hid it; and behold, the girdle was marred; it was profitable for nothing. 


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"Thus says the LORD: `In this manner will I mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 


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This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and walk after other Gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle which is good for nothing. 


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For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto Me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah,' says the LORD, `that they might be unto Me as a people, and as a name, and as praise, and as glory; but they would not hear.' 


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Symbol of the Wine Bottles<br/>"Therefore you shall speak unto them this word: `Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine.' And they shall say unto you, `Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?' 


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Then shall you say unto them, `Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land -- even the kings that sit upon David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem -- with drunkenness. 


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And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,' says the LORD. `I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but shall destroy them.'" 


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Give glory to the LORD your God before He cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness. 


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But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive. 


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Say unto the king and to the queen, "Humble yourselves, sit down; for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory." 


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The cities of the South shall be shut up, and none shall open them. Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; it shall be wholly carried away captive. 


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Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north. Where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock? 


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What will you say when He shall punish you? For you have taught them to be captains, and as chief over you. Shall not sorrows take you, as a woman in travail? 


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And if you say in your heart, "Why come these things upon me?"--for the greatness of your iniquity are your skirts uncovered, and your heels made bare. 


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Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil. 


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This is your lot, the portion of your measures from Me," says the LORD; "because you have forgotten Me, and trusted in falsehood. 


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I have seen your adulteries and your neighings, the lewdness of your whoredom and your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto you, O Jerusalem! Will you not be made clean? When shall it once be?" 


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The Message of Sword, Famine, and Pestilence<br/>The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth: 


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"Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. 


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And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters; they came to the pits and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. 


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Because the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed; they covered their heads. 


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And the wild Asses stood in the high places; they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes failed, because there was no grass." 


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O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do You it for Your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You. 


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O the Hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble, why should You be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turns aside to tarry for a night? 


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Why should You be as a man amazed, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet You, O LORD, are in the midst of us, and we are called by Your name; leave us not. 


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Thus says the LORD unto this people: "Thus have they loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins." 


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When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence." 


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Then said I, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say unto them, `You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.'" 


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Then the LORD said unto me, "The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart. 


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Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in My name, whom I sent not, yet they say, `Sword and famine shall not be in this land': By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. 


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And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them -- them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters -- for I will pour their wickedness upon them. 


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"Therefore you shall say this word unto them: `Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous blow. 


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If I go forth into the field, then behold, the slain with the sword! And if I enter into the city, then behold, them that are sick with famine! Yea, both the prophet and the priest go about into a land that they know not.'" 


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The People Plead for Mercy <br/>Have You utterly rejected Judah? Hath Your soul loathed Zion? Why have You smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and there is no good; and for the time of healing, and behold, trouble! 


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We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against You. 


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Do not abhor us, for Your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of Your glory; remember, break not Your covenant with us. 


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Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are not You He, O LORD our God? Therefore we will wait upon You, for You have made all these things. 


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The LORD Will Not Relent and His Anger with Judah<br/>Then said the LORD unto me, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth. 


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And it shall come to pass, if they say unto you, `where shall we go forth?' then you shall tell them, `Thus says the LORD: "`Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.' 


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"And I will appoint over them four kinds," says the LORD: "the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 


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And I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. 


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"For who shall have pity upon you, O Jerusalem? Or who shall bemoan you? Or who shall go aside to ask how you doest? 


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You have forsaken Me," says the LORD, "you are gone backward; therefore will I stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary with repenting. 


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And I will winnow them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children; I will destroy My people, since they return not from their ways. 


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Their widows are increased to Me above the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them, against the mother of the young men, a despoiler at noonday; I have caused him to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city. 


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She that has borne seven languisheth; she has given up the ghost. Her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been ashamed and confounded; and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies," says the LORD. 


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Jeremiah's Dejection<br/>Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor have men lent to me on usury; yet everyone of them does curse me. 


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The LORD said, "Verily it shall be well with your remnant; verily I will cause the enemy to deal with you well in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. 


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Your substance and your treasures will I give as the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders. 


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And I will make you to pass with your enemies into a land which you know not; for a fire is kindled in Mine anger, which shall burn upon you." 


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O LORD, You know; remember me and visit me, and avenge me on my persecutors. Take me not away in Your longsuffering; know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke. 


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Your words were found, and I ate them; and Your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart; for I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts. 


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I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Your hand, for You have filled me with indignation. 


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Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? Will You be altogether unto me as a liar and as waters that fail? 


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The LORD Reassures Jeremiah<br/>Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, then will I bring you back, and you shall stand before Me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth. Let them return unto you, but return not you unto them. 


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And I will make you unto this people a fortified brazen wall, and they shall fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you," says the LORD. 


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"And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible." 


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Jeremiah's Life-Style and Message; The Signs of Coming Captivity <br/>The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying, 


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For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who begot them in this land: 


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"They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth. And they shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their carcAsses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and for the beasts of the earth." 


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For thus says the LORD: "Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people," says the LORD, "even lovingkindness and mercies. 


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Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. 


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Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.


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For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, in your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. 


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"And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say unto you, `Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God ?' 


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Then shall you say unto them, `Because your fathers have forsaken Me,' says the LORD, `and have walked after other Gods and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law. 


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And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, you walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto Me. 


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Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know not, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other Gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.' 


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God Will Restore Israel <br/>"Therefore behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that it shall no more be said, `The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' 


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but, `the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands where He had driven them.' And I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers. 


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"Behold, I will send for many fishers," says the LORD, "and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 


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For Mine eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hid from My face, neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes. 


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And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled My land; they have filled Mine inheritance with the carcAsses of their detestable and abominable things." 


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O LORD, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto You from the ends of the earth and shall say, "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit." 


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"Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know Mine hand and My might; and they shall know that My name is the LORD. 


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Judah's Sin and Punishment<br/>"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond. It is engraved upon the tablet of their heart and upon the horns of your altars, 


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while their children remember their altars and their wooden idols by the green trees upon the high hills.


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O My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin throughout all your borders. 


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And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not; for you have kindled a fire in Mine anger which shall burn for ever." 


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Thus says the LORD: "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD. 


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For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 


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For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be disquieted in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." 


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"I, the LORD, search the heart; I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." 


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As the partridge sits on eggs and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. 


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O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake You shall be ashamed. "And they that depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters." 


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Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance<br/>Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for You are my praise. 


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As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow You; neither have I desired the woeful day, You know; that which came out of my lips was right before You. 


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Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed. Bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction. 


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Hallow the Sabbath Day<br/>Thus said the LORD unto me: "Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 


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and say unto them, `Hear you the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem that enter in by these gates. 


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Thus says the LORD: Take heed for yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 


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neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, neither do you any work, but hallow you the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. 


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But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction. 


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"`And it shall come to pass, if you diligently hearken unto Me, says the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day to do no work therein, 


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then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain for ever. 


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And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, and meat offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise unto the house of the LORD. 


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But if you will not hearken unto Me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.'" 


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The Potter and the Clay; The Lesson from the Potter<br/>The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 


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And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it. 


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"O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in Mine hand, O house of Israel. 


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At the instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it, 


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if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 


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And at the instant I shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, 


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if it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them. 


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Now therefore go to speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, `Thus says the LORD: Behold, I frame evil against you and devise a device against you. Return you now everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.'" 


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God's Warning Rejected<br/>And they said, "There is no hope; but we will walk after our own devices, and we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart." 


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Therefore thus says the LORD: "Ask you now among the heathen: Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing. 


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Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which comes  from the rock of the field? Or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?


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Because My people has forgotten Me, they have burned incense to vanity; and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, on a road not cast up, 


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to make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; everyone that passes thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. 


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I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity." 


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Jeremiah Persecuted<br/>Then said they, "Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words." 


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Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember that I stood before You to speak good for them, and to turn away Your wrath from them. 


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Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle. 


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Let a cry be heard from their houses, when You shall bring a troop suddenly upon them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet. 


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Yet, LORD, You know all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from Your sight, but let them be overthrown before You; deal thus with them in the time of Your anger. 


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The Lesson <n>(Sign)</n> from the Broken Pottery <br/>Thus says the LORD: "Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take some of the elders of the people and the elders of the priests. 


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And go forth unto the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the East Gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you, 


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and say, `Hear you the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, of which whosoever heartth, his ears shall tingle. 


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Because they have forsaken Me and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents. 


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They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not nor spoke it, neither came it into My mind. 


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Therefore behold, the days come, says the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 


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And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of them that seek their lives; and their carcAsses will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. 


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And I will make this city desolate and a hissing. Everyone that passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss, because of all the plagues thereof. 


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And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend in the siege and straits with which their enemies and they that seek their lives shall straiten them.' 


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and shall say unto them, `Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there be no place to bury. 


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Thus will I do unto this place, says the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet. 


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And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.'" 


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Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD's house and said to all the people, 


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"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: `Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear My words.'" 


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The Word of God to Pashhur; Jeremiah Imprisoned <br/>Now Pashhur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 


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Then Pashhur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the High Gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD. 


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And it came to pass on the morrow that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, "The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magormissabib <n>(that is, Fear round about)</n>. 


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For thus says the LORD: `Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall behold it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon and shall slay them with the sword. 


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Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city and all the labors thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, who shall despoil them and take them and carry them to Babylon. 


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And you, Pashhur, and all that dwell in your house shall go into captivity; and you shall come to Babylon, and there you shall die and shall be buried there, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.'" 


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Jeremiah's Unpopular Ministry<br/>O LORD, You have deceived me, and I was deceived; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; everyone mocketh me. 


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For when I spoke, I cried out; I cried, "Violence and despoliation!" because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me and a derision daily. 


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Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name." But His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not hold back. 


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For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. "Report," say they, "and we will report it!" All in my company watched for my halting, saying, "Perhaps he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him; and we shall take our revenge on him." 


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But the LORD is with me as a mighty, fearsome one; therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed, for they shall not prosper; their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. 


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But, O LORD of hosts, who triest the righteous and see the reins and the heart, let me see Your vengeance on them, for unto You have I opened my cause. 


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Sing unto the LORD, praise you the LORD; for He has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers. 


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Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, "A manchild is born unto you," making him very glad. 


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And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not; and let him hear the cry in the morning and the shouting at noontide, 


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because he slew me not from the womb, or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me. 


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Why came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame? 


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The Destruction <n>(Doom)</n> of Jerusalem Foretold and Sealed<br/>The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying, 


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"Inquire, I pray you, of the LORD for us <n>(for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us)</n>, if so it be that the LORD will deal with us according to all His wondrous works, that he may go up from us." 


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`Thus says the LORD God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith you fight against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. 


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And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and in fury and in great wrath. 


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And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. 


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And afterward, says the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants and the people and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life. And he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity nor have mercy.' 


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"And unto this people you shall say, `Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 


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He that abides in this city shall die by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence; but he that goes out and falls to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him as a prey. 


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For I have set My face against this city for evil and not for good, says the LORD. It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.' 


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Message to the House of David<br/>"And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, `Hear you the word of the LORD, 


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O house of David. Thus says the LORD: "`Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is despoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest My fury go out like fire and burn, that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. 


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Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley and rock of the plain, says the LORD, who say, "Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter into our habitations?" 


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But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the LORD; and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.'" 


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Prophecies Against the Kings of Judah<br/>Thus says the LORD: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word 


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and say, `Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sit upon the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter in by these gates. 


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Thus says the LORD: Execute you judgment and righteousness, and deliver the despoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, and do no wrong. Do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. 


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For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. 


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But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself, says the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.'" 


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For thus says the LORD unto the king's house of Judah: "You are Gilead unto Me, and the head of Lebanon; yet surely I will make you a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited. 


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And I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars and cast them into the fire. 


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"And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, `Why has the LORD done thus unto this great city?' 


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Then they shall answer, `Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other Gods and served them.'" 


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Weep you not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that goes away; for he shall return no more, or see his native country. 


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Message to the Sons of Josiah<br/>For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth out of this place: "He shall not return thither any more, 


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"Woe unto him that builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong, that useth his neighbor's service without wages, and gives him nought for his work, 


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that says, `I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows, and it is ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion.' 


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Shall you reign because you enclosest yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? 


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He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him. Was not this to know Me?" says the LORD. 


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"But your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness and to shed innocent blood, and for oppression and for violence." 


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Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "They shall not lament for him, saying, `Ah, my brother!' or, `Ah, sister!' They shall not lament for him, saying, `Ah, lord!' or, `Ah, his glory!' 


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"Go up to Lebanon and cry, and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from the Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed. 


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I spoke unto you in your prosperity, but you saidst, `I will not hear.' This has been your manner from your youth, that you obeyedst not My voice. 


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The wind shall eat up all your pastors, and your lovers shall go into captivity; surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness. 


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O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest your nest in the cedars, how gracious shall you be when pangs come upon you, the pain as of a woman in travail? 


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Message to Coniah<br/>"As I live," says the LORD, "though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet upon My right hand, yet would I pluck you thence; 


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and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 


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And I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born, and there shall you die. 


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Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol? Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? 


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Thus says the LORD: "Write you this man as childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah." 


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The Branch of Righteousness<br/>"Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" says the LORD. 


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Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed My people: "You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings," says the LORD. 


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"And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 


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And I will set up shepherds over them who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking," says the LORD. 


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"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch; and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 


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In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


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"Therefore, behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that they shall no more say, `The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,' 


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but, `the LORD lives who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries where I had driven them.' And they shall dwell in their own land." 


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False Prophets and Empty Oracles <n>(Prophecies or Words)</n><br/>Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD and because of the words of His holiness. 


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For the land is full of adulterers; for because of cursing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. 


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"For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in My house have I found their wickedness," says the LORD. 


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"Therefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness; they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation," says the LORD. 


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"And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied in Baal and caused My people Israel to err. 


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I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none does return from his wickedness. They are all of them unto Me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah." 


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Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: "Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land." 


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Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you. They make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD. 


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They say still unto them that despise Me, `The LORD has said, "You shall have peace."' And they say unto everyone that walks after the imagination of his own heart, `No evil shall come upon you.'" 


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For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, and has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it? 


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Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind; it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. 


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The anger of the LORD shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days you shall consider it perfectly. 


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But if they had stood in My counsel and had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have turned them from their evil way and from the evil of their doings. 


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Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him?" says the LORD. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" says the LORD. 


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"I have heard what the prophets said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, `I have dreamed, I have dreamed.' 


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How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 


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who think to cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten My name for Baal. 


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The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?" says the LORD. 


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"Therefore behold, I am against the prophets," says the LORD, "that steal My words everyone from his neighbor. 


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Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams," says the LORD, "and do tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all," says the LORD. 


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"And when this people or the prophet or a priest shall ask you, saying, `What is the burden of the LORD?' you shall then say unto them, `What burden? I will even forsake you, says the LORD.' 


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And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who shall say, `The burden of the LORD,' I will even punish that man and his house. 


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Thus shall you say everyone to his neighbor and everyone to his brother, `What has the LORD answered?' and, `What has the LORD spoken?' 


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And the burden of the LORD shall you mention no more, for every man's word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God . 


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Thus shall you say to the prophet, `What has the LORD answered you?' and, `What has the LORD spoken?' 


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But since you say, `The burden of the LORD,' therefore thus says the LORD: Because you say this word, `The burden of the LORD,' and I have sent unto you, saying, `You shall not say: The burden of the LORD,' 


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therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of My presence. 


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And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall not be forgotten." 


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The Lesson <n>(Sign)</n> from the Two Baskets of Good and Bad Figs<br/>The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon. 


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One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten they were so bad. 


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Then said the LORD unto me, "What see you, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs: the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten they are so evil." 


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"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: `Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. 


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For I will set Mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 


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And I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart. 


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"`And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten they are so evil'" -- surely thus says the LORD -- "`so will I deem Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt. 


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And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I shall drive them. 


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And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.'" 


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Seventy Years of Desolation <n>(Suffering)</n><br/>The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah <n>(that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon)</n>, 


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which Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 


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From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day <n>(that is, the three and twentieth year)</n>, the word of the LORD has come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but you have not hearkened. 


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And the LORD has sent unto you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. 


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They said, "Turn you again now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever. 


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And go not after other Gods to serve them and to worship them, and provoke Me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. 


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Yet you have not hearkened unto Me," says the LORD, "that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt." 


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behold, I will send and take all the families of the north," says the LORD, "and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and a hissing and perpetual desolations. 


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Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle. 


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And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 


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And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation," says the LORD, "for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. 


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And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 


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For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves by them also; and I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands." 


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Judgment on the Nations<br/>For thus says the LORD God of Israel unto me: "Take the wine cup of this fury at My hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. 


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Then took I the cup at the LORD's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me, 


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to wit: Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day; 


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and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; 


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and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea; 


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and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. 


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"Therefore you shall say unto them, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink you and be drunken, and spew and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.' 


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And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then shall you say unto them, `Thus says the LORD of hosts: You shall certainly drink. 


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For lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by My name. And should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of hosts.' 


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"Therefore prophesy you against them all these words, and say unto them: "`The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall mightily roar upon His habitation; He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. 


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A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth, for the LORD has a controversy with the nations. He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword,'" says the LORD. 


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Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth." 


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And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground. 


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Howl, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, you leaders of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished, and you shall fall like a pleasant vessel. 


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A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the leaders of the flock shall be heard; for the LORD has despoiled their pasture. 


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He has forsaken His covert as the lion; for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the Oppressor, and because of His fierce anger. 


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Jeremiah Saved from Death <br/>In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the LORD, saying, 


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"Thus says the LORD: `Stand in the court of the LORD's house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD's house, all the words that I command you to speak unto them; diminish not a word. 


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It may so be they will hearken and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent Me of the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings.' 


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And you shall say unto them, `Thus says the LORD: If you will not hearken to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, 


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to hearken to the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent unto you, both rising up early and sending them, but you have not hearkened-- 


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then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.'" 


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So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.


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Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, "You shall surely die! 


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Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, `This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant'?" And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. 


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When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the New Gate of the LORD's house. 


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Then spoke the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, "This man is worthy to die; for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears." 


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Then spoke Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. 


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Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent of the evil that He has pronounced against you. 


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But know you for certain that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof; for truly the LORD has sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears." 


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Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets, "This man is not worthy to die, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God !" 


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Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, 


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"Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, `Thus says the LORD of hosts: "`Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.' 


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"Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, and the LORD repented of the evil which He had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls." 


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And there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. 


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And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid and fled, and went into Egypt. 


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And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain men with him into Egypt. 


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And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt and brought him unto Jehoiakim the king, who slew him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. 


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Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. 


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Symbol of the Bonds and Yokes<br/>In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 


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and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah. 


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And command them to say unto their masters, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; thus shall you say unto your masters: 


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I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto Me. 


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And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. 


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And all nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son, until the very time of his land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall themselves be served by him. 


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And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, says the LORD, with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. 


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Therefore hearken not you to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, who speak unto you, saying, "You shall not serve the king of Babylon." 


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For they prophesy a lie unto you to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out and you should perish. 


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But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, says the LORD, and they shall till it and dwell therein.'" 


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I spoke also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. 


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Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 


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Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets who speak unto you, saying, `You shall not serve the king of Babylon,' for they prophesy a lie unto you. 


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`For I have not sent them,' says the LORD, `yet they prophesy a lie in My name; that I might drive you out, and that you might perish, you and the prophets who prophesy unto you.'" 


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Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, "Thus says the LORD: Hearken not to the words of your prophets who prophesy unto you, saying, `Behold, the vessels of the LORD's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon'; for they prophesy a lie unto you. 


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But if they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem go not to Babylon. 


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For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city, 


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which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem" 


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yea, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem: 


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`They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them,' says the LORD. `Then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.'" 


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The False Prophecy <n>(Falsehood)</n> of Hananiah and Doom<br/>And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, who was of Gibeon, spoke unto me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying, 


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"Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, `I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 


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Within two full years will I bring back into this place all the vessels of the LORD's house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried them to Babylon.


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And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah who went into Babylon,' says the LORD; `for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.'" 


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Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who stood in the house of the LORD, 


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even the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen. The LORD do so. The LORD perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the LORD's house and all that is carried away captive from Babylon into this place. 


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The prophets that have been before me and before you of old prophesied both against many countries and against great kingdoms, of war and of evil and of pestilence. 


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The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known that the LORD has truly sent him." 


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And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, "Thus says the LORD: `Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years.'" And the prophet Jeremiah went his way. 


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Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet <n>(after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah)</n>, saying, 


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"Go and tell Hananiah, saying, `Thus says the LORD: You have broken the yokes of wood, but you shall make for them yokes of iron. 


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For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him; and I have given him the beasts of the field also.'" 


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Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, "Hear now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, but you makest this people to trust in a lie. 


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Therefore thus says the LORD: `Behold, I will cast you from off the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD.'" 


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Jeremiah's Letter to the Captives<br/>Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders who were carried away captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon 


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<n>(after Jeconiah the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem)</n>, 


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by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying: 


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"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all who are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon: 


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Take you wives and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there, and not diminished. 


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And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it; for in the peace thereof shall you have peace. 


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For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Let not your prophets and your diviners who are in the midst of you deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 


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"For thus says the LORD: That after seventy years are accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, causing you to return to this place. 


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For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 


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And I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will return you from captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD; and I will bring you back into the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive. 


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know that thus says the LORD of the king that sits upon the throne of David, and of all the people that dwells in this city, and of your brethren who have not gone forth with you into captivity-- 


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thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. 


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And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and an astonishment and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 


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because they have not hearkened to My words, says the LORD, which I sent unto them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear, says the LORD. 


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"Hear you therefore the word of the LORD, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. 


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Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and of Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie unto you in My name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall slay them before your eyes. 


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And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, `The LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,' 


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because they have committed villainy in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken lying words in My name which I have not commanded them. Indeed I know, and am a witness, says the LORD." 


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"Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: Because you have sent letters in your name unto all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying, 


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`The LORD has made you priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that you should be officers in the house of the LORD for every man that is mad and makes himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison, and in the stocks. 


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For therefore he sent unto us in Babylon, saying: This captivity is long; build you houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.'" 


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"Send to all those of the captivity, saying, `Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied unto you, and I sent him not and he caused you to trust in a lie, 


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therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his seed: he shall not have a man to dwell among this people, neither shall he behold the good that I will do for My people, says the LORD, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD.'" 


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The Promised Return <n>(Restoration)</n> of the Captivesof Israel and Judah<br/>The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 


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"Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel, saying: `Write you all the words that I have spoken unto you in a book. 


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For lo, the days come,' says the LORD, `that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,' says the LORD; `and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.'" 


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Ask you now, and see whether a man does travail with child? Why do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 


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Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. 


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"`For it shall come to pass in that day,' says the LORD of hosts, `that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds, and strangers shall no more be served by him. 


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"`Therefore fear you not, O My servant Jacob,' says the LORD; `neither be dismayed, O Israel; for lo, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. 


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For I am with you,' says the LORD, `to save you; though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, yet will I not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will not leave you altogether unpunished.' 


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All your lovers have forgotten you; they seek you not; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one for the multitude of your iniquity, because your sins were increased. 


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Why criest you for your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable for the multitude of your iniquity; because your sins were increased, I have done these things unto you. 


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Therefore all they that devour you shall be devoured, and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go into captivity; and they that despoil you shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon you will I give for a prey. 


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For I will restore health unto you, and I will heal you of your wounds,' says the LORD, `because they called you an outcast, saying, "This is Zion, whom no man seeks after."' 


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"Thus says the LORD: `Behold, I will bring back from captivity Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city shall be built upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof. 


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And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry; and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. 


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Their children also shall be as in former time, and their congregation shall be established before Me, and I will punish all that oppress them. 


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And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto Me; for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto Me?' says the LORD. 


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Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goes forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. 


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The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until He has done it, and until He has performed the intents of His heart; in the latter days you shall consider it. 


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The Remnant of Israel Saved and Judah Will Be Restored <br/>"At the same time," says the LORD, "will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people." 


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Thus says the LORD: "The people who were left from the sword found grace in the wilderness, even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest." 


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The LORD has appeared of old unto me, saying, "Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you. 


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Again I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel; you shall again be adorned with your timbrels, and shall go forth in the dances of them that make merry. 


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You shall yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. 


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For there shall be a day that the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry, `Arise you, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God .'" 


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For thus says the LORD: "Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; proclaim you, praise you, and say, `O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel.' 


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Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and her that travails with child together; a great company shall return thither. 


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They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them; I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. 


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"Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, `He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.' 


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Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD--for wheat and for wine and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all. 


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Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow. 


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And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness," says the LORD. 


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Mercy on Ephraim<br/>Thus says the LORD: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping; Rachel, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were no more." 


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Thus says the LORD; "Restrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded," says the LORD; "and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. 


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And there is hope in your end," says the LORD, "that your children shall come back to their own border. 


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"I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: `You have chastised me and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn You me, and I shall be turned, for You are the LORD my God . 


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Surely after I was turned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.' 


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Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still; therefore My heart is troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him," says the LORD. 


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"Set you up waymarks, make you high heaps; set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you wentest; turn back, O virgin of Israel, turn back to these your cities. 


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How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall compass a man." 


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Future Prosperity of Judah<br/>Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring them back from captivity: `The LORD bless you, O habitation of justice and mountain of holiness.' 


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And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. 


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"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. 


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And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down, and to throw down and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant," says the LORD. 


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"In those days they shall say no more: "`The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' 


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But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eats the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. 


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A New Covenant <br/>"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-- 


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not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband unto them," says the LORD. 


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"But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days," says the LORD, "I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be My people. 


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And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, `Know the LORD.' For they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them," says the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." 


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Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divides the sea when the waves thereof roar; the LORD of hosts is His name: 


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"If those ordinances depart from before Me," says the LORD, "then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever." 


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Thus says the LORD: "If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done," says the LORD. 


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"Behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that the city shall be built to the LORD from the Tower of Hananeel unto the Gate of the Corner. 


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And the measuring line shall yet go forth opposite it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath. 


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And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the Brook of Kidron unto the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east shall be holy unto the LORD. It shall not be plucked up nor thrown down any more for ever." 


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Jeremiah Buys a Field; Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed and Restored<br/>The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 


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For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem; and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house. 


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For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, "Why dost you prophesy and say, `Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; 


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and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes; 


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and he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until visit I him, says the LORD; though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not prosper'?" 


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Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum your uncle shall come unto you, saying, `Buy you my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is your to buy it.' 


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So Hanameel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, `Buy my field, I pray you, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for yourself.' Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. 


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"And I bought the field from Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed out to him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. 


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And I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. 


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So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom and that which was open; 


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and I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison. 


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`Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed and this evidence which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. 


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For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.' 


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Jeremiah Prays for Understanding<br/>"Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the LORD, saying: 


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Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heaven and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm; and there is nothing too hard for You. 


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You showe lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts is His name, 


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great in counsel and mighty in work. For Your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings; 


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who have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even unto this day, and in Israel and among other men, and have made You a name, as at this day; 


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and have brought forth Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt, with signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror; 


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and have given them this land which You did swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. 


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And they came in and possessed it, but they obeyed not Your voice, neither walked in Your law: they have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do. Therefore You have caused all this evil to come upon them. 


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Behold the siege ramps! They have come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, because of the sword and of the famine and of the pestilence. And what You have spoken has come to pass, and behold, You see it. 


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And You have said unto me, O Lord GOD : `Buy you the field for money, and take witnesses,' for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans." 


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Therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it. 


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And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other Gods to provoke Me to anger. 


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For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil before Me from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands, says the LORD. 


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For this city has been to Me as a provocation of Mine anger and of My fury from the day that they built it even unto this day, so that I should remove it from before My face 


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because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger -- they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 


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And they have turned unto Me the back and not the face. Though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction; 


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And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither came it into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. 


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"And now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city whereof you say, `It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence': 


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Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in Mine anger and in My fury and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. 


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and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them and of their children after them. 


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And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me. 


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Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul. 


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"For thus says the LORD: As I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. 


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And fields shall be bought in this land whereof you say, `It is desolate without man or beast. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.' 


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Men shall buy fields for money, and sign evidences and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their captives to return, says the LORD." 


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A Glorious <n>(Excellence)</n> Return <n>(Restored)</n> Promised to the Captives <n>(Nations)</n><br/>Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, 


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"Thus says the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD who formed it to establish it, the LORD is His name: 


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For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are thrown down by the siege mounds and by the sword: 


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`They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but it is to fill them with the dead bodies of men whom I have slain in Mine anger and in My fury, and for all whose wickedness I have hid My face from this city. 


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Behold, I will bring it health and cure; and I will cure them and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. 


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And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to cease, and will build them as at the first. 


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And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against Me; and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against Me.


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And it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them; and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I provide unto it.' 


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"Thus says the LORD: `Again there shall be heard in this place <n>(which you say shall be desolate, without man and without beast, even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast)</n>, 


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the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, "Praise the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good; for His mercy endures for ever"--and of those who shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captives of the land, as at the first,' says the LORD. 


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"Thus says the LORD of hosts: `Again in this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof shall be a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down. 


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In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the Vally, and in the cities of the South, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hands of him that counts them,' says the LORD. 


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"`Behold, the days come,' says the LORD, `that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 


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In those days and at that time will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.


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In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name wherewith she shall be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.' 


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"For thus says the LORD: `David shall never be in want for a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; 


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neither shall the priests, the Levites, be in want for a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.'" 


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"Thus says the LORD: `If you can break My covenant of the day and My covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season, 


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then may also My covenant be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites the priests, My ministers. 


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As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David My servant and the Levites who minister unto Me.'" 


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"Considerest you not what this people have spoken, saying, `The two families which the LORD has chosen, He has even cast them off'? Thus they have despised My people, that they should be no more a nation before them. 


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Thus says the LORD: `If My covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, 


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then will I cast away the seed of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I will cause their captivity to cease, and have mercy on them.'" 


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King Zedekiah Warned by God<br/>The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem and against all the cities thereof, saying, 


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"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, `Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. 


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And you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken and delivered into his hand; and your eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Babylon. 


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Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. Thus says the LORD of you: You shall not die by the sword, 


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but you shall die in peace; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall they burn incense for you; and they will lament you, saying, "Ah, lord!" For I have pronounced the word, says the LORD.'" 


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when the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah. 


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Treacherous Treatment of Slaves<br/>This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty unto them: 


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that every man should let his manservant and every man his maidservant, being a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free, that none should be served by them, to wit: by a Jew, his brother. 


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Now when all the princes and all the people, who had entered into the covenant, heard that everyone should let his manservant and everyone his maidservant go free, that none should be served by them any more, then they obeyed and let them go. 


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But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids whom they had let go free to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. 


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"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, 


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`At the end of seven years let go every man his brother, a Hebrew who has been sold unto you; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.' But your fathers hearkened not unto Me, neither inclined their ear. 


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And you had now turned, and had done right in My sight in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name. 


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But you turned and polluted My name, and caused every man his servant and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection to be unto you for servants and for handmaids. 


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"Therefore thus says the LORD: You have not hearkened unto Me, in proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim a `liberty' for you, says the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. 


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And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before Me when they cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof-- 


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the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf-- 


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I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them that seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth.


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And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army which has gone up from you. 


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Behold, I will command, says the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire. And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant." 


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The Obedient Rechabites<br/>The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 


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"Go unto the house of the Rechabites and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink." 


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Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brethren and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites, 


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and I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door. 


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And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups; and I said unto them, "Drink you wine." 


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But they said, "We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, `You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons for ever. 


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Neither shall you build a house, nor sow seed, nor plant a vineyard, nor have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are strangers.' 


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Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he has charged us: to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters, 


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But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. 


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But it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, `Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and for fear of the army of the Syrians.' So we dwell at Jerusalem." 


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"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, `Will you not receive instruction to hearken to My words?' says the LORD. 


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`The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father's commandment. Notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but you hearkened not unto Me. 


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I have sent also unto you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, "Return you now every man from his evil way and amend your doings, and go not after other Gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers." But you have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto Me. 


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Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not hearkened unto Me, 


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therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken unto them but they have not heard, and I have called unto them but they have not answered.'" 


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And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: `Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according unto all that he has commanded you, 


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therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack for a man to stand before Me for ever.'" 


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The Scroll Read in the Temple and The Burning of the Scroll <br/>And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: 


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"Take you a scroll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto you against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations from the day I spoke unto you, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. 


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It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin." 


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Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD which He had spoken unto him upon a scroll of a book.


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Therefore go you, and read in the scroll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD's house upon the fasting day; and also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities. 


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It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return everyone from his evil way; for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people." 


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And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the LORD in the LORD's house. 


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And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem. 


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Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the higher court at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD's house in the ears of all the people. 


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The Scroll Read in the Palace<br/>When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the LORD, 


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then he went down into the king's house into the scribe's chamber; and lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes. 


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Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.


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Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi unto Baruch, saying, "Take in your hand the scroll wherein you have read in the ears of the people, and come." So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand, and came unto them. 


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Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and the other, and said unto Baruch, "We will surely tell the king of all these words." 


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Then Baruch answered them, "He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book." 


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Then said the princes unto Baruch, "Go, hide you, you and Jeremiah; and let no man know where you be." 


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The King Destroys Jeremiah's Scroll<br/>And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. 


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So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll; and he took it out of Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king.


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Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. 


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And it came to pass that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the earth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the earth. 


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Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. 


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Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he should not burn the scroll; but he would not hear them.


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But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but the LORD hid them. 


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Jeremiah Rewrites the Scroll<br/>Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, 


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"Take you again another scroll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. 


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And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, `Thus says the LORD: You have burned this scroll, saying, "Why have you written therein, saying: the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?" 


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Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost. 


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And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.'" 


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Then took Jeremiah another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides unto them many like words. 


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Zedekiah's Vain Hope<br/>And King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. 


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But neither he nor his servants, nor the people of the land hearkened unto the words of the LORD, which He spoke by the prophet Jeremiah. 


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And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "Pray now unto the LORD our God for us." 


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Then Pharaoh's army came forth out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem. 


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"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah, who sent you unto Me to inquire of Me: `Behold, Pharaoh's army, which has come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land. 


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And the Chaldeans shall come again and fight against this city, and take it and burn it with fire.' 


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Thus says the LORD: Deceive not yourselves, saying, `The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us,' for they shall not depart. 


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For though you had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this city with fire." 


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Jeremiah Imprisoned <br/>And it came to pass that when the army of the Chaldeans had broken off from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army, 


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then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to separate himself from thence in the midst of the people.


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And when he was in the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, "You fallest away to the Chaldeans!" 


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Then said Jeremiah, "It is false! I fall not away to the Chaldeans." But he hearkened not to him; so Irijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. 


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Thereupon the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison. 


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When Jeremiah had entered into the dungeon and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days, 


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then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out; and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, "Is there any word from the LORD?" And Jeremiah said, "There is; for, said He: You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon!" 


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Moreover Jeremiah said unto King Zedekiah, "How have I offended against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison? 


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Where are now your prophets who prophesied unto you, saying, `The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land'? 


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Therefore hear now, I pray you, O my lord the king. Let my supplication, I pray you, be accepted before you, that you cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there." 


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Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. 


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Jeremiah in the Dungeon; Zedekiah Seeks Advice from Jeremiah<br/>Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying, 


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"Thus says the LORD: `He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goes forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life as a prey, and shall live.' 


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Thus says the LORD: `This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it.'" 


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Therefore the princes said unto the king, "We beseech you, let this man be put to death; for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words unto them; for this man seeks not the welfare of this people, but the hurt." 


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Then Zedekiah the king said, "Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do any thing against you." 


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Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah, the son of Hammelech, which was in the court of the prison; and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire; so Jeremiah sank in the mire. 


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Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon <n>(the king then sitting in the Gate of Benjamin)</n>, 


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"My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is likely to die of hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread in the city." 


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Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, "Take from hence thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies." 


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So Ebedmelech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took from thence old castoff clothes and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. 


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And Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, "Put now these old castoff clothes and rotten rags under your armpits, under the cords." And Jeremiah did so. 


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Zedekiah's Fears and Jeremiah's Advice<br/>So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. 


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Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the principal entry that is in the house of the LORD; and the king said unto Jeremiah, "I will ask you a thing; hide nothing from me." 


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Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, "If I declare it unto you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you counsel, will you not hearken unto me?" 


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So Zedekiah the king swore secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, "As the LORD liveth, who made us this soul, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life." 


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Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, "Thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: `If you will assuredly go forth <n>(surrender)</n> unto the king of Babylon's princes, then your soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and you shall live, and your house. 


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But if you will not go forth <n>(surrender)</n> to the king of Babylon's princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape out of their hand.'" 


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And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the Jews who are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me." 


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But Jeremiah said, "They shall not deliver you. Obey, I beseech you, the voice of the LORD, which I speak unto you; so it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live. 


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And behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, `Your friends have set you up and have prevailed against you. Your feet are sunk in the mire, and they have turned away back.' 


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So they shall bring out <n>(surrender)</n> all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans. And you shall not escape out of their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon; and you shall cause this city to be burned with fire." 


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But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come unto you and say unto you, `Declare unto us now what you have said unto the king, also what the king said unto you; hide it not from us, and we will not put you to death,' 


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then you shall say unto them, `I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house to die there.'" 


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Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah and asked him, and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him, for the matter was not perceived. 


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So Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken, and he was there when Jerusalem was taken. 


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The Fall of Jerusalem<br/>In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. 


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And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken into. 


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And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the Middle Gate: even Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon. 


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And it came to pass that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them and all the men of war, then they fled and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls; and he went out the way of the plain. 


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But the Chaldeans' army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgment upon him. 


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Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes in Riblah; also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah.


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And the Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 


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Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city and those who fell away, who fell to him, with the rest of the people who remained. 


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But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. 


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Jeremiah Goes Free<br/>Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying, 


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"Take him and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto you." 


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So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent Nebushasban, Rabsaris, and Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon's princes; 


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even they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home. So he dwelt among the people. 


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Now the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying, 


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"Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring My words upon this city for evil and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before you. 


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But I will deliver you in that day, says the LORD; and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. 


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For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize unto you, because you have put your trust in Me, says the LORD.'" 


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Jeremiah Lives with Gedaliah the Governor<br/>The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all who were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive unto Babylon. 


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And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said unto him, "The LORD your God has pronounced this evil upon this place. 


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Now the LORD has brought it, and done according as He has said: because you have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing has come upon you. 


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And now behold, I loose you this day from the chains which were upon your hand. If it seem good unto you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will look well after you; but if it seem ill unto you to come with me into Babylon, forbear. Behold, all the land is before you. Wherever it seems  good and convenient for you to go, thither go." 


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Now while he had not yet gone back, he said, "Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wheresoever it seems  convenient unto you to go." So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward and let him go. 


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Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, to Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land. 


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Now when all the captains of the forces which were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed unto him men and women and children, and the poor of the land of those who were not carried away captive to Babylon, 


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then they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah -- even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men. 


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And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore unto them and to their men, saying, "Fear not to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. 


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As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah to serve the Chaldeans, who will come unto us; but you, gather you wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that you have taken." 


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Likewise when all the Jews who were in Moab, and among the Ammonites and in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, 


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even all the Jews returned out of all places where they were driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruits in abundance. 


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Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were in the fields came to Gedaliah at Mizpah


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and said unto him, "Dost you certainly know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to slay you?" But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not. 


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Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, "Let me go, I pray you, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it. Why should he slay you, that all the Jews who are gathered unto you should be scattered and the remnant in Judah perish?" 


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But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said unto Johanan the son of Kareah, "You shall not do this thing, for you speak falsely of Ishmael." 


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Insurrection Against Gedaliah and Ishmael Murders Gedaliah<br/>Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed and the princes of the king, came with ten men unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah. 


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Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and slew him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. 


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Ishmael also slew all the Jews who were with him, even with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there and the men of war. 


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that there came certain ones from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand to bring them to the house of the LORD. 


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And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went; and it came to pass as he met them, he said unto them, "Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam." 


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And it was so when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them and cast them into the midst of the pit, he and the men who were with him. 


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But ten men were found among them who said unto Ishmael, "Slay us not; for we have treasures in the field of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey." So he forbore, and slew them not among their brethren. 


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Now the pit wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel; and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were slain. 


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Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people who were in Mizpah, even the king's daughters and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the Ammonites. 


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But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done, 


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then they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. 


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Now it came to pass, that when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him, then they were glad. 


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So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and returned, and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah. 


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Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, took from Mizpah all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah after he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam -- even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs whom he had brought again from Gibeon. 


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And they departed and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt, 


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because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land. 


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Escape <n>(Flight)</n> to Egypt Is Forbidden<br/>Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near 


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and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, "Let, we beseech you, our supplication be accepted before you, and pray for us unto the LORD your God, even for all this remnant <n>(for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do behold us)</n>, 


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Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, "I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the LORD your God according to your words, and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing the LORD shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you." 


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Then they said to Jeremiah, "The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do even according to all things for which the LORD your God shall send you to us. 


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Whether it be good or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God ." 


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Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, 


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and said unto them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom you sent me to present your supplication before Him: 


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`If you will still abide in this land, then will I build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up; for I repent of the evil that I have done unto you. 


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Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; be not afraid of him, says the LORD, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 


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And I will show mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you and cause you to return to your own land.' 


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saying, `No, but we will go into the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger for bread, and there will we dwell'-- 


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and now therefore hear the word of the LORD, you remnant of Judah! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: `If you wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there, 


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then it shall come to pass that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine whereof you were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. 


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So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there. They shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.' 


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For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: `As Mine anger and My fury has been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall My fury be poured forth upon you when you shall enter into Egypt. And you shall be an execration and an astonishment, and a curse and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.' 


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"The LORD has said concerning you, O you remnant of Judah: `Go you not into Egypt!' Know certainly that I have admonished you this day. 


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For you dissembled in your hearts when you sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, `Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.' 


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And now I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for which He has sent me unto you. 


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Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go and to sojourn." 


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Jeremiah Taken to Egypt <br/>And it came to pass that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, even all these words, 


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then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, "You speak falsely. The LORD our God has not sent you to say, `Go not into Egypt to sojourn there.' 


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But Baruch the son of Neriah sets you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death and carry us away captives into Babylon." 


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So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people obeyed not the voice of the LORD to dwell in the land of Judah. 


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But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all nations where they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah-- 


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even men, and women, and children, and the king's daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah. 


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So they came into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD; thus came they even to Tahpanhes. 


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"Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; 


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and say unto them, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. 


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And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword. 


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And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the Gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captives; and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace. 


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He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh <n>(the House of the Sun)</n> that are in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the Gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.'" 


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Jeremiah Prophesies to the <n>(Jews)</n> Israelites Will Be Punished in Egypt<br/>The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, 


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"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells therein, 


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because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other Gods whom they knew not, neither they, you, nor your fathers. 


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Nevertheless, I sent unto you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, `Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.' 


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But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. 


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Therefore My fury and Mine anger was poured forth and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day. 


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"Therefore, now thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why commit you this great evil against your souls to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah to leave you none to remain, 


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in that you provoke Me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other Gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell, that you might cut yourselves off and that you might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? 


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Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they have committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 


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They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in My law, nor in My statutes that I set before you and before your fathers. 


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"Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set My face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. 


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And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an execration and an astonishment, and a curse and a reproach. 


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For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, 


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so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah to which they have a desire to return to dwell there; for none shall return but such as shall escape." 


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Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great multitude, even all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, 


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"As for the word that you have spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto you. 


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But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goes forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of bread, and were well and saw no evil. 


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But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings unto her, we have been wanting in all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine." 


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"And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men?" 


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Then Jeremiah said unto all the people -- to the men, and to the women, and to all the people who had given him that answer, saying, 


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"The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into His mind? 


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So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, and an astonishment and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day. 


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Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in His law nor in His statutes nor in His testimonies, therefore this evil has happened unto you, as at this day." 


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Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people and to all the women, "Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 


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Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, `We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her.' You will surely accomplish your vows and surely perform your vows! 


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Therefore hear you the word of the LORD, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: `Behold, I have sworn by My great name,' says the LORD, `that My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, "The Lord GOD liveth." 


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Behold, I will watch over them for evil and not for good; and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them. 


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Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall know whose words shall stand, Mine, or theirs. 


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And this shall be a sign unto you,' says the LORD, `that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My words shall surely stand against you for evil.' 


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Thus says the LORD: `Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of them that seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.'" 


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Jeremiah's Message <n>(Assurance)</n> to Baruch<br/>The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book out of the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 


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You did say, `Woe is me now! For the LORD has added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.' 


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Thus shall you say unto him, `The LORD says thus: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land. 


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And seekest you great things for yourself? Seek them not; for behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, says the LORD, but your life will I give unto you for a prey in all places where you go.'" 


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Prophecy <n>(Judgment)</n> Against Egypt <br/>The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles.


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Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: 


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Harness the horses; and get up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines! 


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Why have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? And their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace and look not back, for fear was round about," says the LORD. 


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"Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble and fall toward the north by the River Euphrates. 


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Egypt  rises up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he says, `I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.' 


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Come up, you horses, and rage, you chariots! And let the mighty men come forth: the Ethiopians and the Libyans that handle the shield, and the Lydians that handle and bend the bow. 


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For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Him of His adversaries. And the sword shall devour, and it shall be sated and made drunk with their blood; for the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country by the River Euphrates. 


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Go up into Gilead and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt; in vain shall you use many medicines; for you shall not be cured. 


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The nations have heard of your shame, and your cry has filled the land; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together." 


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Babylonia Will Strike Egypt <br/>The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt: 


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"Declare you in Egypt and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes; say you, `Stand fast and prepare you, for the sword shall devour round about you.' 


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He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another; and they said, `Arise, and let us go again to our own people and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.' 


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"As I live," says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, "Surely as Tabor is among the mountains and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come. 


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O you daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Noph shall be waste and desolate, without an inhabitant. 


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Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and have fled away together. They did not stand, because the day of their calamity had come upon them, and the time of their visitation. 


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The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood. 


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They shall cut down her forest," says the LORD, "though it cannot be searched, because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable. 


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The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north." 


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The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith: "Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their Gods and their kings, even Pharaoh and all them that trust in him. 


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And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of his servants; and afterward it shall be inhabited as in the days of old," says the LORD. 


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God Will Preserve Israel<br/>"But fear not you, O My servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel; for, behold, I will save you from afar off, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. 


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Fear you not, O Jacob My servant," says the LORD, "for I am with you. For I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you, but correct you in measure. Yet will I not leave you wholly unpunished." 


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Prophecy <n>(Judgment)</n> Against the Philistines <br/>The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote Gaza. 


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Thus says the LORD: "Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein, the city, and them that dwell therein; then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl. 


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At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands, 


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because of the day that comes  to despoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remaineth; for the LORD will despoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor. 


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Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley. How long will you cut yourself?" 


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O you sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere you be quiet? Put up yourself into your scabbard; rest and be still. 


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How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD has given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the seashore? There has He appointed it. 


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Prophecy <n>(Judgment)</n> Against Moab<br/>Against Moab, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Woe unto Nebo! For it is despoiled; Kiriathaim is confounded and taken; Misgab is confounded and dismayed. 


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There shall be no more praise of Moab; in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; `Come, and let us cut it off from being a nation.' Also you shall be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue you. 


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For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction.


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For because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you shall also be taken; and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together. 


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And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken. 


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"Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away; for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein. 


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"Cursed be he that does the work of the LORD deceitfully, and cursed be he that keeps back his sword from blood. 


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"Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. 


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"Therefore, behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will send unto him wanderers, who shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels and break their bottles. 


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And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence. 


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Moab is despoiled and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter," says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. 


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All you that are about him, bemoan him; and all you that know his name, say, `How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!' 


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You daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the despoiler of Moab shall come upon you, and he shall destroy your strongholds. 


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O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and espy <n>(watch)</n>; ask him that flees and her that escapeth, and say, `What is done?' 


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Moab is confounded, for it is broken down. Howl and cry! Tell you it in Arnon that Moab is despoiled! 


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"Make you him drunken, for he magnified himself against the LORD. Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. 


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For was not Israel a derision unto you? Was he found among thieves? For since you spokest of him, you skipped for joy. 


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"O you that dwell in Moab, leave the cities and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that makes her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth. 


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We have heard the pride of Moab <n>(he is exceeding proud)</n>-- his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart. 


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Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; Mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres. 


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O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for you with the weeping of Jazer; your plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer. The spoiler is fallen upon your summer fruits and upon your vintage, 


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and joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field and from the land of Moab. And I have caused wine to fail from the wine presses; none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.


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"From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, and even unto Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, as a heifer of three years old; for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate. 


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Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab," says the LORD, "him that offers in the high places and him that burns incense to his gods. 


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Therefore Mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and Mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres, because the riches that he has gotten have perished. 


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"For every head shall be bald and every beard clipped; upon all the hands shall be cuts and upon the loins sackcloth. 


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There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab and in the streets thereof; for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure," says the LORD. 


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"They shall howl, saying, `How it is broken down! How has Moab turned the back with shame!' So shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all those about him." 


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Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are surprised; and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. 


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And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against the LORD. 


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"He that flees from the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation," says the LORD. 


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"They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force; but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones. 


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Woe be unto you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh perisheth! For your sons are taken captive and your daughters captive. 


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"Yet will I bring back the captives of Moab in the latter days," says the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab. 


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Prophecies <n>(Judgment)</n> Against Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Elam, Kedar, and Hazor<br/>Concerning the Ammonites, thus says the LORD: "Hath Israel no sons? Hath he no heir? Why then does their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities? 


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Therefore behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire; then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs," says the LORD. 


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"Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is despoiled! Cry, you daughters of Rabbah; gird you with sackcloth! Lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together. 


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Why gloriest you in the valleys, your flowing valley, O backsliding daughter, that trusted in her treasures, saying, `Who shall come unto me?' 


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Behold, I will bring a fear upon you," says the Lord GOD of hosts, "from all those that be about you; and you shall be driven out, every man straight forth, and none shall gather up him that wandereth. 


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Judgment on Edom<br/>Concerning Edom, thus says the LORD of hosts: "Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished? 


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Flee you, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, at the time that I will visit him. 


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If grape-gatherers come to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. 


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But I have made Esau bare; I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself; his seed is despoiled, and his brethren and his neighbors, and he is no more. 


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For thus says the LORD: "Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you he that shall altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it. 


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For I have sworn by Myself," says the LORD, "that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes." 


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I have heard a word from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, "Gather you together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle!" 


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Your terribleness has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, O you that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill; though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from thence," says the LORD. 


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"Also Edom shall be a desolation; everyone that goes by it shall be astonished and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. 


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As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof," says the LORD, "no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. 


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Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan against the habitation of the strong; but I will suddenly make him 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 a time? And who is that shepherd that will stand before Me?" 


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Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD that He has taken against Edom, and His purposes that He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman. Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely He shall make their habitations desolate with them. 


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The earth is moved at the noise of their fall; at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red Sea.


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Behold, He shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread His wings over Bozrah; and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. 


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Judgment on Damascus<br/>Concerning Damascus: "Hamath is confounded, and Arpad, for they have heard evil tidings; they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. 


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Damascus is waxed feeble and turns herself to flee, and fear has seized on her; anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. 


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


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Judgment on Kedar and Hazor<br/>Concerning Kedar and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus says the LORD: "Arise you, go up to Kedar, and despoil the men of the East. 


