¹Hear the word of Adonai ,

people of Isra’el!

For Adonai has a grievance

against the inhabitants of the land:

there is no truth, no faithful love

or knowledge of God in the land;

²only swearing and lying, killing and stealing

and committing adultery!

They break all bounds, with one blood crime

following another.

³Therefore the land mourns,

and everyone living there languishes,

wild animals too, and the birds in the air;

even the fish in the sea are removed.

⁴But no one should quarrel or rebuke,

because your people are having to quarrel with the cohen .

⁵Therefore you will stumble by day,

and the prophet will stumble with you at night.

“I will destroy your mother.

⁶My people are destroyed for want of knowledge.

Because you rejected knowledge,

I will also reject you as cohen for me.

Because you forgot the Torah of your God,

I will also forget your children.

⁷The more they increased in number,

the more they sinned against me.

I will change their glory into shame.

⁸They feed on the sin of my people

and are greedy for their crimes.

⁹But the cohen will fare

no better than the people;

I will punish him for his ways

and pay him back for his deeds.

¹⁰They will eat but not have enough

and consort with whores but have no children,

because they stopped listening to Adonai .

¹¹Whoring and wine, both old and new,

take away my people’s wits.

¹²My people consult their piece of wood,

their diviner’s wand speaks to them;

for the spirit of whoring makes them err,

they go off whoring, deserting their God.

¹³They sacrifice on the mountain peaks

and offer incense on the hills

under oaks, poplars and pistachio trees;

because they give good shade.

Therefore your daughters behave like whores,

And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

¹⁴I won’t punish your daughters when they act like whores,

or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery;

because the men are themselves going off with whores

and sacrificing with prostitutes.

Yes, a people without understanding

will come to ruin.”

¹⁵If you, Isra’el, prostitute yourself,

still Y’hudah has no need to incur such guilt.

Don’t go to Gilgal or up to Beit-Aven,

and don’t swear, “As Adonai lives.”

¹⁶For Isra’el is stubborn as a stubborn cow;

will Adonai now feed them like a lamb in a big pasture?

¹⁷Efrayim is joined to idols;

let him alone!

¹⁸When they finish carousing, they start their whoring;

their rulers deeply love dishonor.

¹⁹The wind will carry them off in its wings

and their sacrifices bring them nothing but shame.