UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

HOS C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14

UST HOS Chapter 4

◄ HOS 4 ► ║ ═ ©

4 You Israelite people, listen to what Yahweh says!

Listen, because he is bringing charges against you people who live in this land, as follows:

no one is honest,

no one acts faithfully as they promised in the covenant,

and no one knows God in this land.

2 Instead, people curse and lie and murder and steal and commit adultery.

This is happening everywhere! People are killing other people continually!

3 Because of all these things, the land dries up,

and everyone who lives in it wastes away,

along with the wild animals and the birds in the sky.

Even the fish in the sea are diminishing.

4 Certainly there is no one who can dispute these charges,

and there is no one who can say that I am wrong.

But you are like people who argue with a priest when he corrects you!

5 Bad things will happen to you during the day,

and also at night, and to your prophets, as well.

I am going to destroy the nation of Israel, which is like a mother to you.

6 I will destroy my people because they have refused to know me,

and because, on their part, they have refused to know me,

I will no longer allow them to be my kingdom of priests.

The nation of Israel has rejected the laws of their God;

therefore, for my part, also I will reject her people.

7 The more the people increased in number, the more they sinned against me.

So instead of honoring them, I will make people despise them.

8 The priests feed on the sin offerings that my people bring,

and each one craves for my people to sin even more.

9 I will punish the priests along with the other people.

I will punish them for how they have behaved;

yes, I will pay them back for what they have done.

10 They will eat, but they will still go hungry.

They act like prostitutes, but they will not have more children,

because they have abandoned obeying Yahweh.

11 Having sex with prostitutes, drinking wine and new wine,

all make people unable to think clearly.

12 My people ask their wooden idols to guide them,

and they think that a wooden stick will answer them.

They do this because they have strongly desired to be unfaithful sexually and so they are also unfaithful spiritually,

and because they are unfaithful in these ways, their God no longer directs or protects them.

13 They burn sacrifices and incense on the mountaintops, on the hills,

and under oak trees, poplar trees, and terebinth trees,

because the shade there is pleasant.

That is why your daughters have become prostitutes

and your daughters-in-law have been unfaithful to your sons.

14 I will not punish your daughters for being prostitutes

or your daughters-in-law for being unfaithful to their husbands,

because the men themselves go off to be with prostitutes

and offer sacrifices with the prostitutes who serve at the idol shrines.

The people as a whole does not understand what is right, and so Yahweh will destroy them.

15 Even though you people of Israel are being unfaithful to Yahweh by worshiping idols,

you should not cause the people of Judah to sin also.

Warn them, “Do not go to Gilgal or go up to Beth Aven

to worship idols there.

Do not swear oaths there, saying, ‘I swear by the life of Yahweh that I will do what I am promising.’ ”

16 I say this because the Israelite people behave as stubbornly as a young cow that refuses to obey.

So Yahweh certainly will not allow them to freely graze like a gentle lamb in a broad meadow.

17 No, the people of Ephraim have chosen to worship idols.

We can only leave them alone.

18 They have drunk all that there was to drink;

they have fully prostituted themselves.

Their leaders have absolutely loved shameful things.

19 They will go into exile as though a powerful wind has swept them away,

and all of their sacrifices to idols will only make them ashamed.

HOS C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14