Fear God, Wait for the Lord
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For the Lord spoke thus to me while his hand was strong upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:
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Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread.
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But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
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He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against; for both houses of Israel he will become a rock one stumbles over--a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
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And many among them shall stumble; they shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.
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Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.
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I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.
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See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
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Now if people say to you, "Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and mutter; should not a people consult their gods, the dead on behalf of the living,
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for teaching and for instruction?" surely, those who speak like this will have no dawn!
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They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry; when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and their gods. They will turn their faces upward,
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or they will look to the earth, but will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick darkness.