Osee 4

1 Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord [has] a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

“Hear a word of YHWH, sons of Israel, For a strife [is] to YHWH with inhabitants of the land, For there is no truth, nor kindness, Nor knowledge of God in the land;

2 Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery abound in the land, and they mingle blood with blood.

Swearing, and lying, and murdering, And stealing, and committing adultery—have increased, And blood has touched against blood.

3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and shall be diminished with all that dwell in it, with the wild beasts of the field, and the reptiles of the earth, and with the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea shall fail:

Therefore the land mourns, And every dweller is weak in it, With the beast of the field, And with the bird of the heavens, And the fishes of the sea—they are removed.

4 that neither any one may plead, nor any one reprove [another]; but my people are as a priest spoken against.

Only, let no one strive, nor reprove a man, And your people [are] as those striving with a priest.

5 Therefore they shall fall by day, and the prophet with thee shall fall: I have compared thy mother unto night.

And you have stumbled in the day, And a prophet has also stumbled with you in the night, And I have cut off your mother.

6 My people are like as if they had no knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt not minister as priest to me: and [as] thou has forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

My people have been cut off for lack of knowledge, Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being priest to Me, And you forget the Law of your God—I forget your sons, I also!

7 According to their multitude, so they sinned against me: I will turn their glory into shame.

According to their abundance so they sinned against Me, I change their glory into shame.

8 They will devour the sins of my people, and will set their hearts on their iniquities.

The sin of My people they eat, And to their iniquity lift up their soul.

9 And the priest shall be as the people: and I will avenge on them their ways, and I will recompense to them their counsels.

And it has been, like people, like priest, And I have charged on it its ways, And its habitual doings I return to it.

10 And they shall eat, and shall not be satisfied: they have gone a-whoring, and shall by no means prosper: because they have left off to take heed to the Lord.

And they have eaten, and are not satisfied, They have gone whoring, and do not increase, For they have left off taking heed to YHWH.

11 The heart of my people has gladly engaged in fornication and wine and strong drink.

Whoredom, and wine, and new wine, take the heart,

12 They asked counsel by [means of] signs, and they reported answer to them by their staves: they have gone astray in a spirit of whoredom, and gone grievously a-whoring from their God.

My people at its staff asks and its rod declares to it, For a spirit of whoredoms has caused to err, And they go whoring from under their God.

13 They have sacrificed on the tops of the mountains, and on the hills they have sacrificed under the oak and poplar, and under the shady tree, because the shade was good: therefore your daughters shall go a-whoring, and your daughters-in-law shall commit adultery.

On tops of the mountains they sacrifice, And on the hills they make incense, Under oak, and poplar, and terebinth, For good [is] its shade.

14 And I will not visit upon your daughters when they shall commit fornication, nor your daughters-in-law when they shall commit adultery: for they themselves mingled themselves with harlots, and sacrificed with polluted ones, and the people that understood not entangled itself with a harlot.

Therefore your daughters commit whoredom, And your spouses commit adultery, I do not see after your daughters when they commit whoredom, And after your spouses when they commit adultery, For they with the harlots are separated, And with the whores they sacrifice, A people that does not understand kicks.

15 But thou, O Israel, be not ignorant, and go ye not, [men of] Juda, to Galgala; and go not up to the house of On, and swear not by the living Lord.

Though you [are] a harlot, O Israel, Do not let Judah become guilty, And do not come to Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-Aven, Nor swear, YHWH lives.

16 For Israel was maddened like a mad heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a wide place.

For Israel has turned aside as a stubborn heifer, Now YHWH feeds them as a lamb in a large place.

17 Ephraim, joined with idols, has laid stumbling-blocks in his own way.

Ephraim is joined to idols, leave him alone.

18 He has chosen the Chananites: they have grievously gone a-whoring: they have loved dishonour through her insolence.

Sour [is] their drink, They have gone whoring diligently, Her protectors have thoroughly loved shame.

19 Thou art a blast of wind in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their altars.

Wind has distressed her with its wings, And they are ashamed of their sacrifices!”