Hosea 4

¹ Sons of Israel, listen to the word of Yahweh, for Yahweh indicts the inhabitants of the country:

² there is no fidelity, no tenderness, no knowledge of God in the country, only perjury and lies, slaughter, theft, adultery and violence, murder after murder.

³ This is why the country is in mourning, and all who live in it pine away, even the wild animals and the birds of heaven; the fish of the sea themselves are perishing.

⁴ But let no man denounce, no man rebuke; it is you, priest, that I denounce.

⁵ Day and night you stumble along, the prophet stumbling with you, and you are the ruin of your people.

⁶ My people perish for want of knowledge. As you have rejected knowledge so do I reject you from my priesthood; you have forgotten the teaching of your God, I in my turn will forget your children.

⁷ Many as they are, all of them have sinned against me, they have bartered their glory for shame.

⁸ They feed on the sin of my people, they are all greedy for their iniquity.

⁹ But as with the people, so let it be with the priest: I will make them pay for their conduct, I will pay them out for their deeds.

¹⁰ They will eat but never be satisfied, they will play the whore but still be sterile, because they have deserted Yahweh to give themselves up

¹¹ to whoring.

¹² My people consult their block of wood, a rod answers their questions[*a]; for a prostituting spirit leads them astray, they renounce their God to play the whore.

¹³ They offer sacrifice on the mountain tops, burn their offerings on the hills, under oak and poplar and terebinth, so pleasant is their shade. So, although your daughters prostitute themselves and your sons’ wives commit adultery,

¹⁴ I shall not be hard on your daughters for their whoring or on your sons’ wives for their adultery, when everyone else is wandering off with whores and offering sacrifice with sacred prostitutes. Thus does a senseless people run to ruin.

¹⁵ Though you, Israel, play the whore, there is no need for Judah to sin too. Do not go to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-aven[*b], do not take the oath, ‘As Yahweh lives!’

¹⁶ Since Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer, how can Yahweh pasture him like a lamb in rolling pastures?

¹⁷ Ephraim is wedded to idols, they sprawl

¹⁸ in the company of drunkards; whoring is all they care about, they barter their glory for shame.

¹⁹ The wind will carry them off on its wings, then all their altars will bring them is disappointment.