Study Desk

Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity.

And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.

I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled.

Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord .

They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord ; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

"Come, let us return to the Lord ; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

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

As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy.

For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I restore the fortunes of my people,

when I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside.

For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him, for all this.

Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me.