So the LORD was merciful therein, and the LORD God said, "Well, it shall not be."

but the high hill chapels of Isaac must be laid waste, and the churches of Israel made desolate: and as for the house of Jeroboam, I will stand up against it with the sword."

For Amos sayeth, 'Jeroboam shall die with the sword, and Israel shall be led away, captive out of their own land.'"

Wherefore thus sayeth the LORD, 'Thy wife shall be defiled in the city, thy sons and daughters shall be slain with the sword, and thy land shall be measured out with the line. Thou thyself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall be driven out of his own country."

In that day shall the songs of the temple be turned in to sorrow," sayeth the LORD God. "Many dead bodies shall lie in every place, and be cast forth secretly.

"When will the new month be gone, that we may sell victuals; and the Sabbath, that we may have scarceness of corn; to make the bushel less, and the Sicle greater?

At the same time," sayeth the LORD God, "I shall cause the sun to go down at noon, and the land to be dark in the clear day.

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.

"Behold, the days will come," saith the LORD, "that the earer shall overtake the reaper, and treader of grapes the sower of seed. And the mountains shall drop sweetness, and the hills shall be earable.

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.

Behold, I will make thee small among the Heathen, so that thou shalt be utterly despised.

If the thieves and robbers came to thee by night, thou taking thy rest: should they not steal, till they had enough? If the grape gatherers came upon thee, would they not leave thee some grapes?

Yea, the men that were sworn unto thee, shall drive thee out of the borders of thine own land. They that be now at one with thee, shall deceive thee, and overcome thee: Even they that eat thy bread, shall betray thee, before thou perceive it.

Thy giants, O Teman, shall be afraid, for through the slaughter they shall be all overthrown upon the mount of Esau.

For the day of the LORD is hard by upon all Heathen. Like as thou hast done, so shalt thou be dealt withal. Yea, thou shalt be rewarded even upon thine head.

For likewise as ye have drunken upon mine holy hill, so shall all Heathen drink continually: yea drink shall they, and swallow up, so that ye shall be as though ye had never been.

But upon the mount Zion, there shall a remnant escape: these shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess even those, that had themselves afore in possession.

Moreover, the house of Jacob shall be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau the straw: which they shall kindle and consume, so that nothing shall be left of the house of Esau, for the LORD himself hath said it.

And this host shall be the children of Israel's prisoners: Now whatso lieth from Canaan unto Zarephath, and in Sepharad, that shall be under the subjection of Jerusalem: and the cities of the south shall inherit it.

Thus they that escape upon the hill of Zion, shall go up to punish the mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.

And he answered them, "Take me and cast me in to the sea, and so shall it let you be in rest: for I know it is for my sake, that this great tempest is come upon you."

Nevertheless the men assayed with rowing to bring the ship to land: but it would not be, because the sea so wrought and was so troublous against them.

But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, and will pay that that I have vowed, that saving cometh of the LORD."

And Jonah went to and entered into the city even a day's journey, and cried, saying, "There shall not pass forty days but Nineveh shall be overthrown."

And it was cried and commanded in Nineveh by the authority of the king and of his lords, saying, "See that neither man or beast, ox or sheep taste ought at all, and that they neither feed or drink water."

And he prayed unto the LORD and said, "O LORD, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? And therefore I hasted rather to flee to Tarshish: for I knew well enough that thou wast a merciful god, full of compassion long before thou be angry, and of great mercy and repentest when thou art come to take punishment.

Hear all ye people, mark this well, O earth, and all that therein is: Yea, the LORD God himself be witness among you, even the Lord from his holy temple.

And all this shall be for the wickedness of Jacob, and the sins of the house of Israel. But what is the wickedness of Jacob? Is not Samaria? Which are the high places of Judah? Is not Jerusalem?

All her Images shall be broken down and all her winnings shall be burnt in the fire: yea, all her Idols will I destroy. For why? They are gathered out of the hire of a whore, and into a whore's hire shall they be turned again.

The rebellious city hopeth that it shall not be so evil: but for all that, the plague shall come from the LORD, even in to the port of Jerusalem.

Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath; the houses of Achzib shall be as a lie to the kings of Israel.

Make thee bald, and shave thee, because of thy tender children: Make thee clean bald as an Eagle, for they shall be carried away captive from thee.

When they covet to have land, they take it by violence; they rob men of their houses. Thus they oppress a man for his house, and every man for his heritage.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD: Behold, against this household have I devised a plague, whereout ye shall not pluck your necks. Ye shall no more go so proudly, for it will be a perilous time.

In that day shall this term be used, and a mourning shall be made over you on this manner, "We be utterly desolate, the portion of my people is translated. When will he part unto us the land, that he hath taken from us?"

Nevertheless there shall be no man to divide thee thy portion in the congregation of the LORD.

If I were a fleshly fellow, and a preacher of lies, and told them that they might sit bibbing and bolling, and be drunken: O that were a Prophet for this people!

But I will gather thee indeed, O Jacob, and drive the remnant of Israel all together. I shall carry them one with another, as a flock in the fold, and as the cattle in their stalls, that they may be disquieted of other men.

Whoso breaketh the gap, he shall go before. They shall break up the port, and go in and out at it. Their king shall go before them, and the LORD shall be upon the head of them.

And as concerning the prophets that deceive my people, thus the LORD sayeth against them: When they have any thing to bite upon, then they preach that all shall be well. But if a man put not some thing in to their mouths, they preach of war against him.

Therefore your vision shall be turned to night, and your prophesying to darkness. The Sun shall go down over those prophets, and the day shall be dark unto them.

Then shall the vision seers be ashamed, and the soothsayers confounded: yea they shall be fain, all the pack of them, to stop their mouths: for they have not God's word.

O ye judges, ye give sentence for gifts; O ye priests, ye teach for lucre; O ye prophets, ye prophesy for money. Yet will they be taken as those that hold upon God, and say, "Is not the LORD among us? Tush, there can no misfortune happen us."

Therefore shall Zion, for your sakes, be plowed like a field: Jerusalem shall become a heap of stones, and the hill of the temple shall be turned to a high wood.

But in the latter days it will come to pass, that the hill of the LORD's house shall be set up higher than any mountains or hills: Yea, the people shall flow unto it,

and will give issue unto the lame, and make of the outcasts a great people: and the LORD himself shall be their king upon the mount Zion, from this time forth for evermore.

And now, O thou daughter Zion, be sorry: let it grieve thee as a wife labouring with child. For now must thou get thee out of the city, and dwell upon the plain field: Yea, unto Babylon shalt thou go, there shalt thou be delivered, and there the LORD shall loose thee from the hand of thine enemies.

After that shalt thou be robbed thyself, O thou robber's daughter: they shall lay siege against us, and smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.

And thou Bethlehem Ephrata, art little among the thousands of Judah: Out of thee shall come one, unto me, which shall be the governour in Israel: whose outgoing hath been from the beginning, and from everlasting.

In the meanwhile he plagueth them for a season, until the time that she which shall bear have born: then shall the remnant of his brethren be converted unto the children of Israel.

He shall stand fast, and give food in the strength of the LORD, and in the victory of the name of the LORD his God: and when they be converted, he shall be magnified unto the farthest parts of the world.

Then shall there be peace, so that the Assyrian may come into our land, and tread in our houses. We shall bring up seven shepherds and eight princes upon them:

And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the multitude of people, as the dew of the LORD, and as the drops upon the grass, that tarrieth for no man, and waiteth of nobody.

Yea, the residue of Jacob shall be among the gentiles and the multitude of people, as the lion among the beasts of the wood, and as the Lion's whelps among a flock of sheep: which, when he goeth through, treadeth down, teareth in pieces, and there is no man that can help.

Thine hand shall be lift up upon thine enemies, and all thine adversaries shall perish.

All witchcrafts will I root out of thine hand, there shall no more soothsayings be within thee.

Thine Idols and thine Images will I destroy out of thee so that thou shalt no more bow thyself unto the works of thine own hands.

Thy groves will I pluck up by the roots, and break down thy cities.

Thus will I be avenged also, upon all the Heathen that will not hear.

"What acceptable thing shall I offer unto the LORD? Shall I bow my knee to the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, and with calves of a year old?

I will show thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requireth of thee: Namely, to do right, to have pleasure in loving-kindness, to be lowly, and to walk with thy God.

The LORD's voice crieth unto the city, and the man that shall be saved considereth thy name, O LORD. Hear and that thy name may be righteousness. Hear, O ye tribes: who would else give you such warning?

Should I not be displeased, for the unrighteous good in the houses of the wicked and because the measure is diminished?

among those that be full of riches unrighteously gotten: where the citizens deal with falsity, speak lies, and have deceitful tongues in their mouths?

Ye keep the ordinances of Omri, and all the customs of the house of Ahab: Ye follow their pleasures, therefore will I make thee waste, and cause thy inhabiters to be abhorred, O my people: and thus shalt thou bear thine own shame.

The best of them is but as a thistle, and the most righteous of them is but as a brier in the hedge. But when the day of thy preachers cometh, that thou shalt be visited: then shall they be wasted away.

for the son shall put his father to dishonour, the daughter shall rise against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: and a man's foes shall be even they of his own household.

She that is mine enemy shall look upon it, and be confounded, which now sayeth, "Where is thy LORD God?" Mine eyes shall behold her, when she shall be trodden down, as the clay in the streets.

The time will come, that thy gaps shall be made up, and the law shall go abroad:

Notwithstanding, the land must be wasted, because of them that dwell therein, and for the fruits of their own Imaginations.

Therefore feed thy people with thy rod; the flock of thine heritage which dwell desolate in the wood: that they may be fed upon the mount of Carmel, Bashan and Gilead as afore time.

This shall the Heathen see, and be ashamed for all their power: so that they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, and stop their ears.

They shall lick the dust like a serpent, as the worms of the earth, that tremble in their holes. They shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and they shall fear thee.

He shall turn again, and be merciful to us: he shall put down our wickednesses, and cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea.

What imagine ye against the LORD? He makes an utter end: ye shall not be troubled twice.

For like as the thorns that stick together, and as the dry straw, so shall the drunkards be consumed together, even when they be full.

Therefore thus sayeth the LORD, "Let them be as well prepared, yea and as many as they can, yet shall they be hewn down, and pass away. And as for thee, I will vex thee, but not utterly destroy thee;

But the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that there shall come no more seed of thy name. The carved and casten Images will I root out of the house of thy God. Thy grave shall I prepare for thee, and thou shalt be confounded.

The water ports shall be opened, and the king's palace shall fall.

The queen herself shall be led away captive, and her gentlewomen shall mourn as the doves, and groan within their hearts.

Nineveh is like a pool full of water, but then shall they be fain to flee. "Stand, stand," shall they cry, and there shall not one turn back.

Away with the silver, away with the gold: for here is no end of treasure. There shall be a multitude of all manner costly ornaments.

Thus must she be spoiled, emptied and clean stripped out: that their hearts may be melted away, their knees tremble, all their loins be weak, and their faces black as a pot.

Behold, I will upon thee, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, and will set fire upon thy chariots that they shall smoke withal, and the sword shall devour thy young lions. I will make an end of thy spoiling from out of the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

I will cast dirt upon thee, to make thee be abhorred, and a gazing stock.

Even so shalt thou also be drunken, and hide thyself, and seek some help against thine enemy.

All thy strong cities shall be like fig trees with ripe figs: which when a man shaketh, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

Behold, thy people within thee are but women: the ports of thy land shall be open unto thine enemies, and the fire shall devour thy bars.

Draw water now against thou be besieged, make up thy strongholds, go into the clay, temper the mortar, make strong brick:

Thy lords are as the grasshoppers, and thy captains as the multitude of grasshoppers: which when they be cold, remain in the hedges: but when the Sun is up, they flee away, and no man can tell where they are become.

Thy wound cannot be hid, thy plague is so sore. All they that hear this of thee, shall clap their hands over thee. For what is he, to whom thou hast not always been doing hurt?

for the law is torn in pieces, and there can no right judgment go forth. And why? The ungodly is more set by than the righteous: this is the cause that wrong judgment proceedeth.

Behold among the Heathen, and look well: wonder at it, and be abashed: For I will do a thing in your time, which though it be told you, ye shall not believe.

For lo, I will raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and swift people: which shall go as wide as the land is, to take possession of dwelling places that be not their own.

Their horses are swifter than the cats of the mountain, and bite sorer than the wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come by great heaps from far, they flee hastily to devour as the Eagle.

They shall mock the kings, and laugh the princes to scorn. They shall not set by any strong hold, for they shall lay ordinance against it, and take it.

But the LORD answered me, and said, "Write the vision plainly upon thy tables, that whoso cometh by, may read it:

for the vision is yet far off for a time, but at the last it shall come to pass, and not fail. And though he tarry, yet wait thou for him, for in very deed he will come, and not be slack.

Behold, whoso will not believe, his soul shall not prosper: but the just shall live by his faith.

O how suddenly will they stand up, that shall bite thee, and awake, that shall tear thee in pieces? Yea, thou shalt be their prey.