Study Desk

Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away [their punishment]: because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;

And they lay [themselves] down upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned [in] the house of their god.

For they know not to do right, saith the LORD, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

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

For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate [from their right].

Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing [shall be] in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

Pass ye to Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: [are they] better than these kingdoms? or their border greater than your border?

That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.

And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, they shall die.

But behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, saith the LORD the God of hosts; and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the river of the wilderness.

And it came to pass, [that] when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he [is] small.

And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord GOD: [there shall be] many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast [them] forth with silence.

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find [it].

They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise again.

And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they are hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:

And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set my eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.

That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, who are called by my name, saith the LORD that doeth this.

And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit [them]; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine of them; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.