Hosea 4

¹ Israelites, hear what Yahweh says, for Yahweh indicts the citizens of the country: there is no loyalty, nofaithful love, no knowledge of God in the country,

² only perjury and lying, murder, theft, adultery and violence, bloodshed after bloodshed.

³ This is why the country is in mourning and al its citizens pining away, the wild animals also and birds ofthe sky, even the fish in the sea wil disappear.

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

⁵ Priest, you wil stumble in broad daylight, and the prophet will stumble with you in the dark, and I wilmake your mother perish.

⁶ My people perish for want of knowledge. Since you yourself have rejected knowledge, so I shall rejectyou from my priesthood; since you have forgotten the teaching of your God, I in my turn shal forget yourchildren.

⁷ The more of them there have been, the more they have sinned against me; they have bartered theirGlory for Shame.

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

⁹ But as with the people, so with the priest, I shal punish them for their conduct, I shal pay them back fortheir deeds.

¹⁰ They will eat but never be satisfied, they wil play the whore but not grow more prolific, since they havedeserted Yahweh to give themselves up

¹¹ to whoring. Old wine and new wine addle my people's wits,

¹² they consult their block of wood, and their stick explains what they should do. For an urge to gowhoring has led them astray and whoring they go and desert their God;

¹³ they offer sacrifice on the mountain tops, they burn incense on the hil s, under oak and poplar andterebinth, for pleasant is their shade. So, although your daughters play the whore and your daughters-in-lawcommit adultery,

¹⁴ I shal not punish your daughters for playing the whore nor your daughters-in-law for committingadultery, when the men themselves are wandering off with whores and offering sacrifice with sacred prostitutes,for a people with no understanding is doomed.

¹⁵ Though you, Israel, play the whore, there is no need for Judah to sin too. Do not go to Gilgal, do notgo up to Beth-Aven, do not swear oaths 'by Yahweh's life',

¹⁶ for Israel is as stubborn as a stubborn heifer; so is Yahweh likely to pasture him like a lamb in a broadmeadow?

¹⁷ Ephraim has made a pact with idols- let him alone!

¹⁸ Their drunken orgy over, they do nothing but play the whore, preferring Shame to their Pride;

¹⁹ the wind with its wings wil carry them off and their sacrifices wil bring them nothing but disgrace.