Study Desk

I will not punish your daughters when they act promiscuously or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, for the men themselves go off with prostitutes and make sacrifices with cult prostitutes. People without discernment are doomed.

For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn cow. Can the Lord now shepherd them like a lamb in an open meadow?

Hear this, priests! Pay attention, house of Israel! Listen, royal house! For the judgment applies to you because you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread out on Tabor.

Rebels are deeply involved in slaughter; I will be a punishment for all of them.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me. For now, Ephraim, you have acted promiscuously; Israel is defiled.

Their actions do not allow them to return to their God, for a spirit of promiscuity is among them, and they do not know the Lord .

Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow what is worthless.

For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. Yes, I will tear them to pieces and depart. I will carry them off, and no one can rescue them.

I will depart and return to My place until they recognize their guilt and seek My face; they will search for Me in their distress.

Come, let us return to the Lord . For He has torn us, and He will heal us; He has wounded us, and He will bind up our wounds.

For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone, a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem. They commit atrocities.

A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah. When I return My people from captivity,

when I heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim and the crimes of Samaria will be exposed. For they practice fraud; a thief breaks in; a raiding party pillages outside.

For they—their hearts like an oven— draw him into their oven. Their anger smolders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

Israel's arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to Yahweh their God, and for all this, they do not seek Him.

Woe to them, for they fled from Me; destruction to them, for they rebelled against Me! Though I want to redeem them, they speak lies against Me.

They do not cry to Me from their hearts; rather, they wail on their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine; they turn away from Me.

They turn, but not to what is above; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of the cursing of their tongue. They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt.

They have installed kings, but not through Me. They have appointed leaders, but without My approval. They make their silver and gold into idols for themselves for their own destruction.