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Moff HOS Chapter 4

◄ HOS 4 ► ║ ©

4 Israel, hear the word of the Eternal, for the Eternal has a charge to bring against the dwellers in the land:

No fidelity, no kindness,

no knowledge of God in the land,

2 nothing but perjury, lying, and murder,

stealing, debauchery, burglary–

bloodshed upon bloodshed!

3 Hence the land is woebegone,

its denizens all droop;

even the beasts and birds

and the very fish within the sea are perishing.

4 But none protests, no man complains,

for my people are no better than their priestlings.

5 You priests! You shall stumble by broad daylight;

your day will I turn into night.

6 My people are dying for want of knowledge,

and you reject my knowledge;

so I reject you from my priesthood.

Since you ignore the instructions of your God,

I will ignore your children.

7 The more they multiply the more thy sin,

they change my glory for a shameful worship;

8 they batten on my people’s sins,

they have an appetite for human guilt.

9 But priests shall fare like people,

I punish them for their doings

and requite them for their deeds;

10 they shall eat and never be satisfied,

commit adultery and get no children

since they have ceased to heed the Eternal.

12 My people ask a piece of wood to guide them,

a pole gives them their oracles!

For a harlot-spirit has let them astray,

they have left their God for a faithless way;

13 they sacrifice on mountain heights,

and offer incense on the hills,

below the oak, the terebinth, the poplar–

so pleasant is their shade.

So your daughters play the harlot,

matrons commit adultery.

14 But I will not punish your daughters for harlotry,

nor your matrons for adultery,

when the men themselves go off with harlots,

and sacrifice with temple-prostitutes.

This brings a senseless people to their ruin–

11 liquor and lust deprive them of their wits.

15 Though you play the harlot, Israel,

l et not Judah be guilty;

never go to Gilgal,

never climb up to Beth-Aven,

never swear at Beêrsheba

“By the life of the Eternal.”

16 Israel is stubborn

as a restive heifer.

How can the Eternal feed them now,

like lambs in a broad pasture?

17 The Ephraimites are wedded to idolatry;

let them alone–

18 in a drunken band, a lustful company,

in love with shameful worship, not my glory.

19 When the whirlwind sweeps them off,

they shall feel shame for their altars.

◄ HOS 4 ► ║ ©

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