4.

1 Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel! The Lord has brought charges against you, saying： "There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land.

2 You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere - one murder after another.

3 That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away. Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing.

4 "Don't point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you.

5 So you will stumble in broad daylight, and your false prophets will fall with you in the night. And I will destroy Israel, your mother.

6 My people are being destroyed because they don't know me. Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.

7 The more priests there are, the more they sin against me. They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols.

8 "When the people bring their sin offerings, the priests get fed. So the priests are glad when the people sin!

9 And what the priests do, the people also do.' So now I will punish both priests and people for their wicked deeds.

10 They will eat and still be hungry. They will play the prostitute and gain nothing from it, for they have deserted the Lord

11 to worship other gods. "Wine has robbed my people of their understanding.

12 They ask a piece of wood for advice! They think a stick can tell them the future! Longing after idols has made them foolish. They have played the prostitute, serving other gods and deserting their God.

13 They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops. They go up into the hills to burn incense in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees. "That is why your daughters turn to prostitution, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

14 But why should I punish them for their prostitution and adultery? For your men are doing the same thing, sinning with whores and shrine prostitutes. O foolish people! You refuse to understand, so you will be destroyed.

15 "Though you, Israel, are a prostitute, may Judah avoid such guilt. Do not join the false worship at Gilgal or Beth-aven, even though they take oaths there in the Lord's name.

16 Israel is stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. So should the Lord feed her like a lamb in a lush pasture?

17 Leave Israel alone, because she is married to idolatry.

18 When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking, off they go to find some prostitutes. They love shame more than honor.

19 So a mighty wind will sweep them away. Their sacrifices to idols will bring them shame.

1 "Hear this, you priests. Pay attention, you leaders of Israel. Listen, you members of the royal family. Judgment has been handed down against you. For you have led the people into a snare by worshiping the idols at Mizpah and Tabor.

2 You have dug a deep pit to trap them at Acacia Grove. But I will settle with you for what you have done.

3 I know what you are like, O Ephraim. You cannot hide yourself from me, O Israel. You have left me as a prostitute leaves her husband; you are utterly defiled.

4 Your deeds won't let you return to your God. You are a prostitute through and through, and you do not know the Lord.

5 "The arrogance of Israel testifies against her; Israel and Ephraim will stumble under their load of guilt. Judah, too, will fall with them.

6 When they come with their flocks and herds to offer sacrifices to the Lord, they will not find him, because he has withdrawn from them.

7 They have betrayed the honor of the Lord, bearing children that are not his. Now their false religion will devour them along with their wealth.

8 "Sound the alarm in Gibeah! Blow the trumpet in Ramah! Raise the battle cry in Beth-aven! Lead on into battle, O warriors of Benjamin!

9 One thing is certain, Israel： On your day of punishment, you will become a heap of rubble.

10 "The leaders of Judah have become like thieves. So I will pour my anger on them like a waterfall.

11 The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment because they are determined to worship idols.

12 I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.

13 "When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria - to the great king there - but he could neither help nor cure them.

14 I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces! I will carry them off, and no one will be left to rescue them.

15 Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and turn to me. For as soon as trouble comes, they will earnestly search for me."

1 "Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds.

2 In just a short time he will restore us, so that we may live in his presence.

3 Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring."

4 "O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?" asks the Lord. "For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight.

5 I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces - to slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light.

6 I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings./ Greek version reads to show mercy. Compare Matt 9:13; 12:7. Hebrew to know God.

7 But like Adam, you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust.

8 "Gilead is a city of sinners, tracked with footprints of blood.

9 Priests form bands of robbers, waiting in ambush for their victims. They murder travelers along the road to Shechem and practice every kind of sin.

10 Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim and Israel： My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods!

11 "O Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you, though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people.

1 "I want to heal Israel, but its sins are too great. Samaria is filled with liars. Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside!

2 Its people don't realize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds are all around them, and I see them all.

3 "The people entertain the king with their wickedness, and the princes laugh at their lies.

4 They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is kept hot while the baker is kneading the dough.

5 On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine, carousing with those who mock them.

6 Their hearts are like an oven blazing with intrigue. Their plot smolders through the night, and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.

7 Burning like an oven, they consume their leaders. They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me for help.

8 "The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners, making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!

9 Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don't even know it. Their hair is gray, but they don't realize they're old and weak.

10 Their arrogance testifies against them, yet they don't return to the Lord their God or even try to find him.

11 "The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.

12 But as they fly about, I will throw my net over them and bring them down like a bird from the sky. I will punish them for all the evil they do.

13 "What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me! Let them die, for they have rebelled against me. I wanted to redeem them, but they have told lies about me.

14 They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from me.

15 I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot evil against me.

16 They look everywhere except to the Most High. They are as useless as a crooked bow. Their leaders will be killed by their enemies because of their insolence toward me. Then the people of Egypt will laugh at them.

1 "Sound the alarm! The enemy descends like an eagle on the people of the Lord, for they have broken my covenant and revolted against my law.

2 Now Israel pleads with me, 'Help us, for you are our God!'

3 But it is too late. The people of Israel have rejected what is good, and now their enemies will chase after them.

4 The people have appointed kings without my consent, and princes without my knowledge. By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold, they have brought about their own destruction.

5 "O Samaria, I reject this calf - this idol you have made. My fury burns against you. How long will you be incapable of innocence?

6 This calf you worship, O Israel, was crafted by your own hands! It is not God! Therefore, it must be smashed to bits.

7 "They have planted the wind and will harvest the whirlwind. The stalks of grain wither and produce nothing to eat. And even if there is any grain, foreigners will eat it.

8 The people of Israel have been swallowed up; they lie among the nations like an old discarded pot.

9 Like a wild donkey looking for a mate, they have gone up to Assyria. The people of Israel have sold themselves - sold themselves to many lovers.

10 But though they have sold themselves to many allies, I will now gather them together for judgment. Then they will writhe under the burden of the great king.

11 "Israel has built many altars to take away sin, but these very altars became places for sinning!

12 Even though I gave them all my laws, they act as if those laws don't apply to them.

13 The people of Israel love their rituals of sacrifice, but to me their sacrifices are all meaningless. I will hold my people accountable for their sins, and I will punish them. They will return to Egypt.

14 Israel has forgotten its Maker and built great palaces, and Judah has fortified its cities. Therefore, I will send down fire on their cities and will burn up their fortresses."

1 O people of Israel, do not rejoice as other nations do. For you have been unfaithful to your God, hiring yourselves out like prostitutes, worshiping other gods on every threshing floor.

2 So now your harvests will be too small to feed you. There will be no grapes for making new wine.

3 You may no longer stay here in the Lord's land. Instead, you will return to Egypt, and in Assyria you will eat food that is ceremonially unclean.

4 There you will make no offerings of wine to the Lord. None of your sacrifices there will please him. They will be unclean, like food touched by a person in mourning. All who present such sacrifices will be defiled. They may eat this food themselves, but they may not offer it to the Lord.

5 What then will you do on festival days? How will you observe the Lord's festivals?

6 Even if you escape destruction from Assyria, Egypt will conquer you, and Memphis will bury you. Nettles will take over your treasures of silver; thistles will invade your ruined homes.

7 The time of Israel's punishment has come; the day of payment is here. Soon Israel will know this all too well. Because of your great sin and hostility, you say, "The prophets are crazy and the inspired men are fools!"

8 The prophet is a watchman over Israel for my God, yet traps are laid for him wherever he goes. He faces hostility even in the house of God.

9 The things my people do are as depraved as what they did in Gibeah long ago. God will not forget. He will surely punish them for their sins.

10 The Lord says, "O Israel, when I first found you, it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But then they deserted me for Baal-peor, giving themselves to that shameful idol. Soon they became vile, as vile as the god they worshiped.

11 The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will not be born or grow in the womb or even be conceived.

12 Even if you do have children who grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone.

13 I have watched Israel become as beautiful as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children for slaughter."

14 O Lord, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don't give birth and breasts that give no milk.

15 The Lord says, "All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels.

16 The people of Israel are struck down. Their roots are dried up, and they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children."

17 My God will reject the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey. They will be wanderers, homeless among the nations.