"Thus sayeth the LORD, 'For three and four wickednesses of Damascus, I will not spare her: because they have threshed Gilead with iron stales.

Thus sayeth the LORD, 'For three and four wickednesses of Gaza, I will not spare her: because they make the prisoners yet more captive, and have driven them into the land of Edom.

Thus sayeth the LORD, 'For three and four wickednesses of the city of Tyre, I will not spare her: because they have increased the captivity of the Edomites, and have not remembered the brotherly covenant.

Thus sayeth the LORD, 'For three and four wickednesses of the children of Ammon, I will not spare them: because they ripped up the women great with child in Gilead, to make the borders of their lands the wider.

"Thus sayeth the LORD, 'For three and four wickednesses of Judah, I will not spare him: because he hath cast aside the law of the LORD, and not kept his commandments: For why? They would needs be deceived with the lies that their forefathers followed.

They tread upon poor men's heads, in the dust of the earth, and crook the ways of the meek. The son and the father go to the harlot, to dishonour my holy name,

they lie beside every altar upon clothes taken to pledge, and in the house of their gods they drink the wine of the oppressed.

May twain walk together except they be agreed among themselves?

Cry they out Alarum with the trumpet in the city, and the people not afraid? Cometh there any plague in a city without it be the LORD's doing?

"'Preach in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces of the land of Egypt, and say, 'Gather you together upon the mountains of Samaria, so shall ye see great murder and violent oppression among them.' For why? They regard not the thing that is right,

sayeth the LORD: they gather together evil gotten goods, and lay up robbery in their houses.'

Wherefore two, yea three cities came unto one, to drink water: but they were not satisfied. Yet will ye not turn unto me,' sayeth the LORD.

But they owe him evil will, that reproveth them openly: and whoso telleth them the plain truth, they abhor him.

"'If no,' sayeth the LORD God, the God of hosts, 'there shall be mourning in all streets. Yea, they shall say in every street: alas, alas. They shall call the husbandman to lamentation; and such as can mourn, to mourning.

O Woe be to the proud wealthy in Zion, to such as think them so sure upon the mount of Samaria: which hold themselves for the best of the world, and rule the house of Israel, even as they list.

Go unto Calneh, and see: and from thence get you to Hamath the great city, and so go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better at ease than these kingdoms, or the border of their land wider than yours?

so that though there remain ten men in one house, they shall die.

So their next kinfolks and the dead buriers shall take them, and carry away their bones, and say unto him that is in the innermore house, 'Is there yet any more by thee?' And he shall answer, 'They are all gone. Hold thy tongue,' shall he say. For they would not remember the name of the LORD.

Behold, the LORD is minded to smite the great houses, so that they shall decay: and the little houses, that they shall cleave asunder.

Now when they undertook to eat up all the green things in the land, I said, "O LORD God, be merciful, I beseech thee: who should else help up Jacob that is brought so low?"

Shall not the land tremble; and all they that dwell therein, mourn for this? Shall not their destruction come upon them like a water stream; and flow over them, as the flood of Egypt?

Your high feasts will I turn to sorrow, and your songs to mourning: I will bring sackcloth upon all backs, and baldness on every head. Yea, such a mourning will I send them, as is made upon an only begotten son, and they shall have a miserable end.

So that they shall go from the one sea to the other, yea from the north unto the east, running about to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

yea even they that swear in the offense of Samaria, and say, 'As truly as thy God liveth at Dan, and as truly as thy God liveth at Beersheba' These shall fall, and never rise up again."

I saw the LORD standing upon the altar, and he said, "Smite the door check, that the posts may shake withal. For their covetousness shall fall upon all their heads, and their posterity shall be slain with the sword. They shall not flee away, there shall not one of them escape, nor be delivered.

Though they were buried in the hell, my hand shall fetch them from thence. Though they climb up to heaven, yet shall I cast them down.

Though they hide themselves upon the top of Carmel, yet shall I seek them out, and bring them from thence. Though they creep down from my sight into the deep of the sea, I shall command the serpent, even there to bite them.

If they go away before their enemies into captivity, then shall I command the sword there to slay them. Thus will I set mine eyes upon them, for their harm and not for their wealth.

For when the LORD God of hosts toucheth a land, it consumeth away, and all they that dwell therein, must needs mourn: And why? Their destruction shall arise as every stream and run over them, as the flood in Egypt.

For lo, this I promise: though I sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as they use to sift in a sieve: yet shall not the smallest gravel stone fall upon the earth.

that they may possess the remnant of Edom, yea and all such people as call upon my name with them," sayeth the LORD, which doth these things.

And I will turn the captivity of my people Israel: and they shall build the cities that are fallen in decay, and shall inhabit them, and shall plant vines and drink wine, and shall make gardens and eat the fruit of them.

And I will plant them their own land, and they shall not be any more plucked out of their land which I have given them," saith the LORD thy God.