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His idols of silver, and his idols of gold,

Which they made for themselves to worship,

To the moles and to the bats;

²¹To go into the clefts of the rocks,

And into the crevices of the crags,

From before the terror of the Lord,

And from the glory of His majesty,

When he ariseth to shake mightily the earth.

 

²²Cease ye from man, in whose nostrils is a breath;

For how little is he to be accounted!

 

3For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts,

Doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah

Stay and staff,

Every stay of bread, and every stay of water;

²The mighty man, and the man of war;

The judge, and the prophet, And the diviner, and the elder;

³The captain of fifty, and the man of rank,

And the counsellor, and the cunning charmer, and the skilful enchanter.

⁴And I will give children to be their princes,

And babes shall rule over them.

⁵And the people shall oppress one another,

Every man his fellow, and every man his neighbour;

The child shall behave insolently against the aged,

And the base against the honourable,

⁶For a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father:

'Thou hast a mantle,

Be thou our ruler,

And let this ruin be under thy hand.'

⁷In that day shall he swear, saying:

'I will not be a healer;

For in my house is neither bread nor a mantle;

Ye shall not make me ruler of a people.'

⁸For Jerusalem is ruined,

And Judah is fallen;

Because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord,

To provoke the eyes of His glory.

 

⁹The show of their countenance doth witness against them;

And they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not.

Woe unto their soul!

For they have wrought evil unto themselves.

¹⁰Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be well with him;

For they shall eat the fruit of their doings.

¹¹Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him;

For the work of his hands shall be done to him.

¹²As for My people, a babe is their master,

And women rule over them.

O My people, they that lead thee cause thee to err,

And destroy the way of thy paths.

 

¹³The Lord standeth up to plead,

And standeth to judge the peoples.

¹⁴The Lord will enter into judgment

With the elders of His people, and the princes thereof:

'It is ye that have eaten up the vineyard;

The spoil of the poor is in your houses;

¹⁵What mean ye that ye crush My people,

And grind the face of the poor?'

Saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

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