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For among my people are founde wicked persons, that lay waite as hee that setteth snares: they haue made a pit, to catch men.

They are waxen fat and shining: they doe ouerpasse the deedes of the wicked: they execute no iudgement, no not the iudgement of the fatherlesse: yet they prosper, though they execute no iudgement for the poore.

Shall I not visite for these things, sayth the Lord? or shall not my soule be auenged on such a nation as this?

O ye children of Beniamin, prepare to flee out of the middes of Ierusalem, and blowe the trumpet in Tekoa: set vp a standart vpon Beth-haccerem: for a plague appeareth out of the North and great destruction.

Prepare warre against her: arise, and let vs goe vp toward the South: wo vnto vs: for the day declineth, and the shadowes of the euening are stretched out.

For thus hath the Lord of hostes said, Hewe downe wood, and cast a mounte against Ierusalem: this citie must be visited: all oppression is in the middes of it.

Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lorde: I am weary with holding it: I will powre it out vpon the children in the streete, and likewise vpon the assembly of the yong men: for the husbande shall euen be taken with the wife, and the aged with him that is full of daies.

And their houses with their landes, & wiues also shalbe turned vnto strangers: for I will stretch out mine hande vpon the inhabitants of the land, sayeth the Lord.

For from the least of them, euen vnto the greatest of them, euery one is giuen vnto couetousnesse, and from the Prophet euen vnto the Priest, they all deale falsely.

Thus sayeth the Lord, Stande in the waies and beholde, and aske for the olde way, which is the good way and walke therein, and yee shall finde rest for your soules: but they saide, We will not walke therein.

Goe not foorth into the fielde, nor walke by the way: for the sword of the enemie and feare is on euery side.

O daughter of my people, girde thee with sackecloth, and wallowe thy selfe in the ashes: make lamentation, and bitter mourning as for thine onely sonne: for the destroier shall suddenly come vpon vs.

I haue set thee for a defence and fortres among my people, that thou maiest knowe and trie their waies.

The bellowes are burnt: the lead is consumed in the fire: the founder melteth in vaine: for the wicked are not taken away.

For if you amende and redresse your waies and your woorkes: if you execute iudgement betweene a man and his neighbour,

Then will I let you dwell in this place in the lande that I gaue vnto your fathers, for euer and euer.

But go ye nowe vnto my place which was in Shilo, where I set my Name at the beginning, and beholde, what I did to it for the wickednesse of my people Israel.

Therfore thou shalt not pray for this people, neither lift vp crie or praier for them neither intreat me, for I will not heare thee.

For I spake not vnto your fathers, nor commaunded them, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offrings and sacrifices.

Cut off thine heare, O Ierusalem, and cast it away, and take vp a complaint on the hie places: for the Lorde hath reiected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.