Ho 4:1 Hear the word of Jehovah, / O children of Israel; / For Jehovah has a controversy / With the inhabitants of the land. / For there is no faithfulness or kindness / And no knowledge of God in the land.
Ho 4:2 Rather there are swearing and deceiving and murder / And stealing and adultery; / They are violent, / And bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Ho 4:3 Because of this the land mourns, / And all the inhabitants languish within it, / With the beasts of the field / And with the birds of heaven; / Indeed, even the fish of the sea will be taken away.
Ho 4:4 Yet let no man contend, / And let no man reprove; / For your people are like those who contend with the priest.
Ho 4:5 And you will stumble in the day, / And the prophet also will stumble / With you in the night; / And I will destroy your mother.
Ho 4:6 My people are destroyed / Because of a lack of that knowledge. / For you have rejected that knowledge, / And I will reject you, so that you will not be a priest to Me; / Since you have forgotten the law of your God, / I also will forget your children.
Ho 4:7 The more they were multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; / I will change their glory into shame.
Ho 4:8 They feed on the sin of My people, / And their soul desires their iniquity.
Ho 4:9 And it will be that as it is with the people, so it will be with the priest; / Thus I will visit their ways upon them, / And I will recompense their doings to them.
Ho 4:10 And they will eat but will not be filled; / And they will commit fornication but will not increase; / For they have ceased giving heed to Jehovah.
Ho 4:11 Fornication and wine / And new wine take away their heart.
Ho 4:12 My people inquire at their wooden post, / And their rod informs them of things; / For a spirit of harlotries makes them err, / And they have gone about as harlots away from their God.
Ho 4:13 Upon the tops of the mountains they offer sacrifices, / And upon the hills they burn incense, / Under oak, poplar, and terebinth, / Because its shade is good. / Therefore your daughters go about as harlots, / And your brides commit adultery.
Ho 4:14 I will not punish your daughters when they go about as harlots / Nor your brides when they commit adultery; / For the men themselves go off with harlots, / And they offer sacrifices with the prostitutes; / And the people who have no understanding will be cast down.
Ho 4:15 Though you, Israel, go about as a harlot, / Let not Judah trespass; / And do not come to Gilgal, / Nor go up to Beth-aven, / Nor swear, As Jehovah lives.
Ho 4:16 For Israel is stubborn, / Like a stubborn heifer; / Will Jehovah now pasture them / Like a lamb in a spacious place?
Ho 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols; / Leave him alone.
Ho 4:18 Their liquor has ended; / They have given themselves up to harlotry; / Her rulers dearly love shame.
Ho 4:19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, / And they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
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