Osee 4
1 Hear the word of the Lord, you 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 the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel; for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; because 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.
There is false swearing, and lying, and murdering, and stealing, and committing adultery: they break the bounds, and blood toucheth on 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 shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the heaven; yea, also the fishes of the sea shall perish.
4 that neither any one may plead, nor any one reprove [another]; but my people are as a priest spoken against.
Yet let no man strive, let no man reprove another: and thy people are contentious equally with the priest.
5 Therefore they shall fall by day, and the prophet with you shall fall: I have compared your mother to night.
Therefore shalt thou stumble in the daytime, and the prophet also shall stumble with thee in the night; and I will destroy thy mother.
6 My people are like as if they had no knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall not minister as priest to me: and [as] you has forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, so will I also reject thee, that thou shalt not be a priest to me; and as thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, so will I myself also forget thy children.
7 According to their multitude, so they sinned against me: I will turn their glory into shame.
The more they increased, the more did they sin against me: therefore will 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-offering of my people do they eat, and for their iniquity doth the soul of each one of them long.
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.
Therefore shall the same befall both people and priest: and I will punish every one of them for his ways, and recompense every one for his doings.
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 will eat, and shall not be satisfied; they will commit lewdness, and they shall not increase; because the Lord have they forsaken [not] keeping [his law].
11 The heart of my people has gladly engaged in fornication and wine and strong drink.
Lewdness and wine and new wine take away 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 ask counsel of their stick of wood, and their staff shall tell them [the future]: for the spirit of lewdness hath caused them to err, and they are gone astray unfaithful to 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.
Upon the tops of the mountains do they sacrifice, and upon the hills burn they incense, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because their shadow is good: therefore will your daughters play the harlot, and your daughter-in-law will commit adultery.
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.
I cannot inflict punishment on your daughters when they play the harlot, nor on your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; for they themselves associate with lewd women, and with harlots do they sacrifice: and so doth the people that doth not understand stumble.
15 But you, O Israel, be not ignorant, and go you not, [men of] Juda, to Galgala; and go not up to the house of On, and swear not by the living Lord.
Yet though thou play the harlot, O Israel, let not Judah offend: and come not ye unto Gilgal, nor go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, As the Lord liveth.
16 For Israel was maddened like a mad heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a wide place.
For like an untamable cow is Israel disobedient: now would the Lord have fed them as a sheep in a wide pasture.
17 Ephraim, joined with idols, has laid stumbling blocks in his own way.
Ephraim is bound to idols: let him alone.
18 He has chosen the Chananites: they have grievously gone a-whoring: they have loved dishonour through her insolence.
Their drinking bout will come to an end: while they are so often guilty of lewdness, their rulers love, prepare themselves but shame.
19 You are a blast of wind in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their altars.
The wind seizeth fast on them with its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
