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Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 1Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them 2poisonous water to drink.
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3I will scatter them among the nations 4whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will 5send the sword after them, until I have consumed them."
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Thus says the LORD of hosts: 6"Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come;
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let them make haste 7and raise a wailing over us, 8that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water.
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For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 9'How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.'"
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Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge.
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For death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, 10cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares.
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Speak, "Thus declares the LORD: 11'The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, 12like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.'"
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Thus says the LORD: 13"Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,
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but 14let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. 15For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."
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"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when 16I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh--