84 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
84 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 5
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1 Listen, you people of Israel! Listen to this funeral song I am singing:
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2 “The virgin Israel has fallen,
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never to rise again!
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She lies abandoned on the ground,
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with no one to help her up.”
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3 The Sovereign Lord says:
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“When a city sends a thousand men to battle,
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only a hundred will return.
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When a town sends a hundred,
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only ten will come back alive.”
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4 Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel:
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“Come back to me and live!
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5 Don’t worship at the pagan altars at Bethel;
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don’t go to the shrines at Gilgal or Beersheba.
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For the people of Gilgal will be dragged off into exile,
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and the people of Bethel will be reduced to nothing.”
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6 Come back to the Lord and live!
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Otherwise, he will roar through Israel like a fire,
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devouring you completely.
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Your gods in Bethel
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won’t be able to quench the flames.
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7 You twist justice, making it a bitter pill for the oppressed.
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You treat the righteous like dirt.
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8 It is the Lord who created the stars,
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the Pleiades and Orion.
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He turns darkness into morning
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and day into night.
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He draws up water from the oceans
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and pours it down as rain on the land.
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The Lord is his name!
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9 With blinding speed and power he destroys the strong,
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crushing all their defenses.
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10 How you hate honest judges!
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How you despise people who tell the truth!
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11 You trample the poor,
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stealing their grain through taxes and unfair rent.
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Therefore, though you build beautiful stone houses,
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you will never live in them.
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Though you plant lush vineyards,
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you will never drink wine from them.
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12 For I know the vast number of your sins
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and the depth of your rebellions.
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You oppress good people by taking bribes
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and deprive the poor of justice in the courts.
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13 So those who are smart keep their mouths shut,
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for it is an evil time.
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14 Do what is good and run from evil
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so that you may live!
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Then the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies will be your helper,
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just as you have claimed.
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15 Hate evil and love what is good;
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turn your courts into true halls of justice.
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Perhaps even yet the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies
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will have mercy on the remnant of his people.
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16 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:
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“There will be crying in all the public squares
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and mourning in every street.
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Call for the farmers to weep with you,
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and summon professional mourners to wail.
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17 There will be wailing in every vineyard,
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for I will destroy them all,”
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says the Lord.
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18 What sorrow awaits you who say,
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“If only the day of the Lord were here!”
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You have no idea what you are wishing for.
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That day will bring darkness, not light.
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19 In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—
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only to meet a bear.
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Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—
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and he’s bitten by a snake.
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20 Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless,
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without a ray of joy or hope.
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21 “I hate all your show and pretense—
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the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
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22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
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I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
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23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
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I will not listen to the music of your harps.
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24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
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an endless river of righteous living.
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25 “Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel?
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26 No, you served your pagan gods—Sakkuth your king god and Kaiwan your star god—the images you made for yourselves.
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27 So I will send you into exile, to a land east of Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of Heaven’s Armies. |