Study Desk

Thus sayth the Lord, For three transgressions of Israel, and for foure, I will not turne away the punishment thereof; because they solde the righteous for siluer, and the poore for a paire of shooes:

And they lay themselues downe vpon clothes laide to pledge, by euery Altar, and they drinke the wine of the condemned in the house of their God.

For they know not to doe right, saith the Lord; who store vp violence, and robberie in their palaces.

They hate him that rebuketh in the gate: and they abhorre him that speaketh vprightly.

For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sinnes: they afflict the iust, they take a bribe, and they turne aside the poore in the gate from their right.

Therefore the Lord, the God of hostes, the Lord saith thus: Wailing shall be in all streets, and they shall say in all the high wayes, Alas, Alas: and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation, to wailing.

Passe ye vnto Calneh, and see, and from thence go ye to Hemath the great: then goe downe to Gath of the Philistines: bee they better then these kingdomes? Or their border greater then your border?

That drinke wine in bowles, and anoint themselues with the chiefe ointments: but they are not grieued for the affliction of Ioseph.

Therefore now shall they goe captiue, with the first that goe captiue, and the banquet of them that stretched themselues, shalbe remoued.

And it shall come to passe, if there remaine tenne men in one house, that they shall die.

But beholde, I wil raise vp against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, the God of hostes, and they shall afflict you from the entring in of Hemath, vnto the riuer of the wildernesse.

And it came to passe, that when they had made an ende of eating the grasse of the land, then I said; O Lord God, forgiue, I beseech thee, by whom shal Iacob arise? for he is small.

And the songs of the Temples shalbe howlings in that day, sayth the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in euery place, they shall cast them foorth with silence.

And they shall wander from Sea to Sea, and from the North euen to the East they shall runne to and fro, to seeke the worde of the Lord, and shall not finde it.

They that sweare by the sinne of Samaria, and say, Thy God, O Dan, liueth, and the manner of Beer-sheba liueth, euen they shall fall, and neuer rise vp againe.

And though they hide themselues in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence, and though they be hid from my sight in the bottome of the Sea, thence will I commaund the serpent, and he shall bite them.

And though they goe into captiuitie before their enemies, thence will I commaund the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes vpon them for euill, and not for good.

That they may possesse the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen; which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doth this.

And I will bring againe the captiuitie of my people of Israel: and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drinke the wine thereof: they shall also make gardens, and eate the fruite of them.

And I will plant them vpon their land, and they shall no more be pulled vp out of their land, which I haue giuen them, saith the Lord thy God.