1 H ear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy (a pleading contention) with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness, love, pity and mercy, or knowledge of God in the land.

2 T here is nothing but swearing and breaking faith and killing and stealing and committing adultery; they break out, one bloodshed following close on another.

3 T herefore shall the land mourn, and all who dwell in it shall languish, together with the wild beasts of the open country and the birds of the heavens; yes, the fishes of the sea also shall be collected and taken away.

4 Y et let no man strive, neither let any man reprove, for with you is My contention, O priest.

5 A nd you shall stumble in the daytime, and the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.

6 M y people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to Me; seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

7 T he more they increased and multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.

8 T hey feed on the sin of My people and set their heart on their iniquity.

9 A nd it shall be: Like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their doings.

10 F or they shall eat and not have enough; they shall play the harlot and beget no increase, because they have forsaken the Lord for harlotry;

11 H arlotry and wine and new wine take away the heart and the mind and the spiritual understanding.

12 M y people ask counsel of their wood, and their staff gives them oracles and instructs them. For the spirit of harlotry has led them astray and they have played the harlot, withdrawing themselves from subjection to their God.

13 T hey sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and they burn incense upon the hills and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because there the shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the harlot and your sons’ wives commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, for themselves go aside in order to be alone with women who prostitute themselves for gain, and they sacrifice at the altar with dedicated harlots. Therefore the people without understanding shall stumble and fall and come to ruin.

15 T hough you, Israel, play the harlot and worship idols, let not Judah offend and become guilty; come not to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth-aven, nor swear, As the Lord lives.

16 F or Israel has behaved stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer. How then should he expect to be fed and treated by the Lord like a lamb in a large pasture?

17 E phraim is joined to idols, let him alone.

18 T heir drinking carousal over, they go habitually to play the harlot; rulers love shame more than her glory.

19 T he resistless wind has bound up in its wings or skirts, and they and their altars shall be put to shame because of their sacrifices.