Chapter 3

  For, lo, the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, Is turning aside from Jerusalem, And from Judah, stay and staff, Every stay of bread, and every stay of water.  

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  Hero and man of war, judge and prophet, And diviner and elder,  

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  Head of fifty, and accepted of faces, And counsellor, and the wise of artificers, And the intelligent of charmers.  

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  And I have made youths their heads, And sucklings rule over them.  

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  And the people hath exacted -- man upon man, Even a man on his neighbour, Enlarge themselves do the youths against the aged, And the lightly esteemed against the honoured.  

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  When one layeth hold on his brother, [Of] the house of his father, [by] the garment, 'Come, a ruler thou art to us, And this ruin [is] under thy hand.'  

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  He lifteth up, in that day, saying: 'I am not a binder up, And in my house is neither bread nor garment, Ye do not make me a ruler of the people.'  

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  For stumbled hath Jerusalem, and Judah hath fallen, For their tongue and their doings [are] against Jehovah, To provoke the eyes of His glory.  

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  The appearance of their faces witnessed against them, And their sin, as Sodom, they declared, They have not hidden! Wo to their soul, For they have done to themselves evil.  

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  Say ye to the righteous, that [it is] good, Because the fruit of their doings they eat.  

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  Wo to the wicked -- evil, Because the deed of his hand is done to him.  

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  My people -- its exactors [are] sucklings, And women have ruled over it. My people -- thy eulogists are causing to err, And the way of thy paths swallowed up.  

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  Jehovah hath stood up to plead, And He is standing to judge the peoples.  

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  Jehovah into judgment doth enter With elders of His people, and its heads: 'And ye, ye have consumed the vineyard, Plunder of the poor [is] in your houses.  

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  What -- to you? ye bruise My people, And the faces of the poor ye grind.' An affirmation of the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts, And Jehovah saith:  

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  'Because that daughters of Zion have been haughty, And they walk stretching out the neck, And deceiving [with] the eyes, Walking and mincing they go, And with their feet they make a tinkling,  

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  The Lord also hath scabbed The crown of the head of daughters of Zion, And Jehovah their simplicity exposeth.  

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  In that day doth the Lord turn aside The beauty of the tinkling ornaments, And of the embroidered works, And of the round tires like moons,  

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  Of the drops, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,  

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  Of the bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, And of the bands, And of the perfume boxes, and the amulets,  

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  Of the seals, and of the nose-rings,  

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  Of the costly apparel, and of the mantles, And of the coverings, and of the purses,  

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  Of the mirrors, and of the linen garments, And of the hoods, and of the vails,  

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  And it hath been, instead of spice is muck, And instead of a girdle, a rope, And instead of curled work, baldness, And instead of a stomacher a girdle of sackcloth.  

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  For instead of glory, thy men by sword do fall, And thy might in battle.  

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  And lamented and mourned have her openings, Yea, she hath been emptied, on the earth she sitteth!  

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