The Sovereign LORD says, "Israel, long ago you rejected my authority; you refused to obey me and worship me. On every high hill and under every green tree you worshiped fertility gods.

Even if you washed with the strongest soap, I would still see the stain of your guilt.

rushing into the desert. When she is in heat, who can control her? No male that wants her has to trouble himself; she is always available in mating season.

The LORD says, "If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, he cannot take her back again. This would completely defile the land. But, Israel, you have had many lovers, and now you want to return to me!

Look up at the hilltops. Is there any place where you have not acted like a prostitute? You waited for lovers along the roadside, as an Arab waits for victims in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution.

The LORD asked, "Why should I forgive the sins of my people? They have abandoned me and have worshiped gods that are not real. I fed my people until they were full, but they committed adultery and spent their time with prostitutes.

They were like well-fed stallions wild with desire, each lusting for his neighbor's wife.

"But you took advantage of your beauty and fame to sleep with everyone who came along.

You took the silver and gold jewelry that I had given you, used it to make male images, and committed adultery with them.

I gave you food---the best flour, olive oil, and honey---but you offered it as a sacrifice to win the favor of idols." This is what the Sovereign LORD says.

without taking my children and sacrificing them to idols?

"Mortal man," he said, "there were once two sisters.

The older one was named Oholah (she represents Samaria), and the younger one was named Oholibah (she represents Jerusalem). I married both of them, and they bore me children.

They were soldiers in uniforms of purple, noblemen and high-ranking officers; all of them were handsome young cavalry officers.

She continued what she had begun as a prostitute in Egypt, where she lost her virginity. From the time she was a young woman, men slept with her and treated her like a prostitute.

They stripped her naked, seized her sons and daughters, and then killed her with a sword. Women everywhere gossiped about her fate.

She too was full of lust for the Assyrian noblemen and officers---soldiers in bright uniforms---and for the cavalry officers, all of those handsome young men.

"She sank deeper and deeper in her immorality. She was attracted by the images of high Babylonian officials carved into the wall and painted bright red, with sashes around their waists and fancy turbans on their heads.

As soon as she saw them, she was filled with lust and sent messengers to them in Babylonia.

She exposed herself publicly and let everyone know she was a whore. I was as disgusted with her as I had been with her sister.

She was filled with lust for oversexed men who had all the lustfulness of donkeys or stallions."

When the LORD first spoke to Israel through Hosea, he said to Hosea, "Go and get married; your wife will be unfaithful, and your children will be just like her. In the same way my people have left me and become unfaithful."

They make promises and break them; they lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another.

I am afraid that the next time I come my God will humiliate me in your presence, and I shall weep over many who sinned in the past and have not repented of the immoral things they have done---their lust and their sexual sins.

Unfaithful people! Don't you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? If you want to be the world's friend, you make yourself God's enemy.

The Sovereign LORD says, "Israel, long ago you rejected my authority; you refused to obey me and worship me. On every high hill and under every green tree you worshiped fertility gods.

Look up at the hilltops. Is there any place where you have not acted like a prostitute? You waited for lovers along the roadside, as an Arab waits for victims in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution.

When Josiah was king, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what Israel, that unfaithful woman, has done? She has turned away from me, and on every high hill and under every green tree she has acted like a prostitute.

You go to the high mountains to offer sacrifices and have sex.

for their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They have burned incense at pagan hill shrines and spoken evil of me. So I will punish them as their past deeds deserve."

Corpses will be scattered among the idols and around the altars, scattered on every high hill, on the top of every mountain, under every green tree and every large oak, in every place where they burned sacrifices to their idols. Then everyone will know that I am the LORD.

I brought them to the land I had promised to give them. When they saw the high hills and green trees, they offered sacrifices at all of them. They made me angry by the sacrifices they burned and by the wine they brought as offerings.

Look, the enemy is coming like clouds. Their war chariots are like a whirlwind, and their horses are faster than eagles. We are lost! We are doomed!

The hand unrolled the scroll, and I saw that there was writing on both sides---cries of grief were written there, and wails and groans.

This is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "The city of murderers is doomed! It is like a corroded pot that is never cleaned. Piece after piece of meat is taken out, and not one is left.

Jerusalem is doomed, that corrupt, rebellious city that oppresses its own people.

"How terrible it will be for you, Chorazin! How terrible for you too, Bethsaida! If the miracles which were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, the people there would have long ago put on sackcloth and sprinkled ashes on themselves, to show that they had turned from their sins!

Then I looked, and I heard an eagle that was flying high in the air say in a loud voice, "O horror! horror! How horrible it will be for all who live on earth when the sound comes from the trumpets that the other three angels must blow!"

Jerusalem, wash the evil from your heart, so that you may be saved. How long will you go on thinking sinful thoughts?

How much longer will criminals be proud and boast about their crimes?

My people, how can you be such stupid fools? When will you ever learn?

Jerusalem, your immoral actions have defiled you. Although I tried to purify you, you remained defiled. You will not be pure again until you have felt the full force of my anger.

I will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your idols and everything else that has defiled you.

The Sovereign LORD says, "I will once again let the Israelites ask me for help, and I will let them increase in numbers like a flock of sheep.

And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish?

As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

All these promises are made to us, my dear friends. So then, let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God.

"Foolish people! How long do you want to be foolish? How long will you enjoy making fun of knowledge? Will you never learn?

I hate the gold bull worshiped by the people of the city of Samaria. I am furious with them. How long will it be before they give up their idolatry?