But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels {and} in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. {imagination: or, stubbornness} {went: Heb. were}

I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, {and} the name of the Chemarims with the priests;

But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear. {pulled...: Heb. they gave a backsliding shoulder} {stopped: Heb. made heavy}

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. {laden: Heb. of heaviness} {gone...: Heb. alienated, or, separated}

And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt {him}. {none...: Heb. together they exalted not}

Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. {power: Heb. hand}

Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I am weary with holding in: I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with {him that is} full of days.

Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, {even} the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.

And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

Behold, therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I {am} the LORD. {a spoil: or, meat}

And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, {and} hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Why {then} is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.

But he, {being} full of compassion, forgave {their} iniquity, and destroyed {them} not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that {it is} an evil {thing} and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear {is} not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But {his word} was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not {stay}.

But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, {and} there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

And them that are turned back from the LORD; and {those} that have not sought the LORD, nor enquired for him.

For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, {and} hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, {which were} all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. {valiant...: Heb. sons of valour}

And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:

Now the Egyptians {are} men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. {power: Heb. hand}

I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, {and} refrained myself: {now} will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. {devour: Heb. swallow, or, sup up}

Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied {him}? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil {is} good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where {is} the God of judgment?

But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels {and} in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. {imagination: or, stubbornness} {went: Heb. were}

And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I {am} against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate. {most...: Heb. desolation and desolation}

{It is} in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows. {when...: or, when I shall bind them for their two transgressions, or, in their two habitations}

So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, {and} because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.

Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.