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TN_12_MacArthur_Bible_Dec.qxd 8/8/03 17:33 Page 1261

DECEMBER 14
Yet you have not returned to Me,” 11 Therefore, because you tread down
Says the LORD. the poor
And take grain taxes from him,
12 “Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel;
Because I will do this to you, Though you have built houses of hewn
stone,
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
Yet you shall not dwell in them;
13 For behold, You have planted pleasant vineyards,
He who forms mountains, But you shall not drink wine from them.
And creates the wind, 12 For I know your manifold transgressions
Who declares to man what his And your mighty sins:
thought is, Afflicting the just and taking bribes;
And makes the morning darkness, Diverting the poor from justice at the
Who treads the high places of the gate.
earth— 13 Therefore the prudent keep silent
The LORD God of hosts is His name. at that time,
For it is an evil time.
Hear this word which I take up against you,
5 a lamentation, O house of Israel: 14 Seek good and not evil,
That you may live;
2 The virgin of Israel has fallen; So the LORD God of hosts will be
She will rise no more. with you,
She lies forsaken on her land; As you have spoken.
There is no one to raise her up. 15 Hate evil, love good;
3 For thus says the Lord GOD: Establish justice in the gate.
It may be that the LORD God of hosts
“The city that goes out by a thousand Will be gracious to the remnant
Shall have a hundred left, of Joseph.
And that which goes out by a hundred
Shall have ten left to the house of Israel.” 16 Therefore the LORD God of hosts, the Lord,
says this:
For thus says the LORD to the house of Israel:
4
“Seek Me and live; “There shall be wailing in all streets,
5 And they shall say in all the highways,
But do not seek Bethel,
Nor enter Gilgal, ‘Alas! Alas!’
Nor pass over to Beersheba; They shall call the farmer to mourning,
For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, And skillful lamenters to wailing.
17
And Bethel shall come to nothing. In all vineyards there shall be wailing,
6 Seek the LORD and live, For I will pass through you,”
Lest He break out like fire in the house Says the LORD.
of Joseph, 18 Woe to you who desire the day
And devour it, of the LORD!
With no one to quench it in Bethel— For what good is the day of the LORD
You who turn justice to wormwood, to you?
7
And lay righteousness to rest in the It will be darkness, and not light.
earth!” 19 It will be as though a man fled from a
8 He made the Pleiades and Orion; lion,
He turns the shadow of death into And a bear met him!
morning Or as though he went into the house,
And makes the day dark as night; Leaned his hand on the wall,
He calls for the waters of the sea And a serpent bit him!
And pours them out on the face of the 20 Is not the day of the LORD darkness,
earth; and not light?
The LORD is His name. Is it not very dark, with no brightness
He rains ruin upon the strong,
9 in it?
So that fury comes upon the fortress.
21
“I hate, I despise your feast days,
10 They hate the one who rebukes in the And I do not savor your sacred
gate, assemblies.
And they abhor the one who speaks 22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings
uprightly. and your grain offerings,
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