- 1
- ¶ HEAR the word of the LORD, O children of Israel;
for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no justice or mercy or knowledge of God in the land;
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- But cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they have increased and they mix blood with blood.
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- Therefore the land shall mourn, and all its inhabitants shall languish, even the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air;
and the fish of the sea also shall perish.
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- Because none judges nor reproves another, for your people is engaged in controversy like a priest.
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- Therefore you shall stumble in the day, and the prophet of your people also shall stumble in the night, and yet your mother keeps silence.
- 6
- ¶ My people are silent for lack of knowledge;
because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from the priesthood; seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
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- According to the multitude of them, so they have sinned against me;
they changed their honor into shame.
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- They devoured my people unmercifully, and they have engulfed themselves in their iniquity.
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- The priest has become common like the people;
and I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their deeds.
- 10
- For they shall eat and not be satisfied;
they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase, because they have forsaken the LORD.
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- And they love whoredom, and wine and drunkenness take away their heart.
- 12
- ¶ My people ask counsel of their own imagination, and their staff declares to them the directions;
for the spirit of whoredom has caused them to go astray, so they have turned from their God.
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- They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinth, because their shadow is good;
therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom and your brides shall commit adultery.
- 14
- I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your brides when they commit adultery;
for they themselves are mingled with whores, and they sacrifice with shameless harlots; therefore a people that does not understand embraces the harlot.
- 15
- As for you, O Israel, you shall not condemn Judah;
nor shall you go to Gilgal, neither come up to Beth-aon; nor shall you say, The LORD lives.
- 16
- For as a heifer that slides back from the yoke, so Israel balks;
now the LORD will feed them like lambs in a wide pasture.
- 17
- Ephraim is joined to idols;
let him alone.
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- They all commit whoredom, and they love shame and idolatry.
- 19
- Let the wind rend asunder their robes;
let them be ashamed of their altars.
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