Destroyed For Lack of Knowledge
4 Hear the word of Adonai, Bnei-Yisrael!
For Adonai has a dispute with the inhabitants of the land,
because there is no truth,
no covenant loyalty,
and no knowledge of God in the land.
2 Curse, deceive, murder,
steal, commit adultery!
They practice violence,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land will mourn,
and everyone dwelling in it will languish
along with the beasts of the field and the flying creatures of the sky—
even the fish of the sea will be removed.
4 Yet let no one dispute
and let no one argue.
Your people are like a kohen
who makes quarrels.
5 So you will stumble by day.
Also a prophet will stumble with you by night,
when I destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Since you rejected knowledge,
I will also reject you from being My kohen.
Since you forgot the Torah of your God,
just so I will forget your children.
7 The more they multiplied,
the more they sinned against Me.
I will change their glory into disgrace.
8 They feed on the sin of My people
and relish their iniquity.
9 But it will be like people, like kohen.
So I will punish them for their ways,
and repay them for their deeds.
10 They have eaten but will not be satisfied.
They have fornicated but will not increase.
For they stopped giving heed to Adonai.
11 Prostitution and wine—even new wine—
it takes away understanding.
12 My people consult their wooden idol
and their divining rod informs them.
For a spirit of prostitution
leads them astray
and they have been a prostitute—
out from under their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops
and on the high places they burn incense
under oak poplar, and terebinth—
for its shade is good.
Therefore your daughters are prostitutes
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14 Will I not punish your daughters for prostitution
or your daughters-in-law for adultery?
For they consort with prostitutes,
and they sacrifice with cult prostitutes.
A people without understanding
will be thrust down.
15 Though you, Israel, are a prostitute,
let Judah not become guilty.
But do not come to Gilgal
or go up to Beth-aven,[a]
and do not swear: ‘As Adonai lives!’
16 For Israel is stubborn like a stubborn cow.
Now Adonai will pasture them
like a lamb in the open field.
17 Ephraim is joined to idols;
let him alone!
18 Their liquor has come to an end.
They surely have practiced prostitution.
Her rulers have deeply loved disgrace.
19 A wind will wrap her up in its wings.
They will be ashamed of their sacrifices.
Footnotes
- Hosea 4:15 Meaning, House of Iniquity.