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The houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing unto the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will yet bring unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah, him that shall possess thee;

The glory of Israel shall come even unto Adullam.

¹⁶Make thee bald, and poll thee for the children of thy delight;

Enlarge thy baldness as the vulture;

For they are gone into captivity from thee.

 

2Woe to them that devise iniquity

And work evil upon their beds!

When the morning is light, they execute it,

Because it is in the power of their hand.

²And they covet fields, and seize them;

And houses, and take them away;

Thus they oppress a man and his house,

Even a man and his heritage.

³Therefore thus saith the Lord:

Behold, against this family do I devise an evil,

From which ye shall not remove your necks,

Neither shall ye walk upright; for it shall be an evil time.

⁴In that day shall they take up a parable against you,

And lament with a doleful lamentation, and say:

'We are utterly ruined;

He changeth the portion of my people;

How doth he remove it from me!

Instead of restoring our fields, he divideth them.'

⁵Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast the line by lot

In the congregation of the Lord.

 

⁶'Preach ye not', they preach;

'They shall not preach of these things,

That they shall not take shame.'

⁷Do I change, house of Jacob?

Is the spirit of the Lord straitened?

Are these His doings?

Do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly?

 

⁸But of late My people is risen up as an enemy;

With the garment ye strip also the mantle

From, them that pass by securely, so that they are as men returning from war.

⁹The women of My people ye cast out from their pleasant houses;

From their young children ye take away My glory for ever.

¹⁰Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your resting-place;

Because of the uncleanness thereof, it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction.

 

¹¹If a man walking in wind and falsehood do lie:

'I will preach unto thee of wine and of strong drink';

He shall even be the preacher of this people.

 

¹²I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee;

I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;

I will render them all as sheep in a fold;

As a flock in the midst of their pasture,

They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.

¹³The breaker is gone up before them;

They have broken forth and passed on,

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