Study Desk

The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. In spite of everything that has happened, they have not returned to me, the Lord their God.

They keep on turning away from me to a god that is powerless. They are as unreliable as a crooked bow. Because their leaders talk arrogantly, they will die a violent death, and the Egyptians will laugh."

Even though they call me their God and claim that they are my people and that they know me,

An Israelite craftsman made the idol, and it is not a god at all! The gold bull worshiped in Samaria will be smashed to pieces!

People of Israel, stop celebrating your festivals like pagans. You have turned away from your God and have been unfaithful to him. All over the land you have sold yourselves like prostitutes to the god Baal and have loved the grain you thought he paid you with!

God has sent me as a prophet to warn his people Israel. Yet wherever I go, you try to trap me like a bird. Even in God's Temple the people are the prophet's enemies.

They are hopelessly evil in what they do, just as they were at Gibeah. God will remember their sin and punish them for it.

The God I serve will reject his people, because they have not listened to him. They will become wanderers among the nations.

The people whose hearts are deceitful must now suffer for their sins. God will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars.

I will not punish you in my anger; I will not destroy Israel again. For I am God and not a mere human being. I, the Holy One, am with you. I will not come to you in anger.

The Lord says, "The people of Israel have surrounded me with lies and deceit, and the people of Judah are still rebelling against me, the faithful and holy God.

Their ancestor Jacob struggled with his twin brother Esau while the two of them were still in their mother's womb; when Jacob grew up, he fought against God—

he fought against an angel and won. He wept and asked for a blessing. And at Bethel God came to our ancestor Jacob and spoke with him.

This was the Lord God Almighty—the Lord is the name by which he is to be worshiped.

So now, descendants of Jacob, trust in your God and return to him. Be loyal and just, and wait patiently for your God to act.

But I, the Lord your God who led you out of Egypt, I will make you live in tents again, as you did when I came to you in the desert.

The Lord says, "I am the Lord your God, who led you out of Egypt. You have no God but me. I alone am your savior.

Return to the Lord your God, people of Israel. Your sin has made you stumble and fall.

Assyria can never save us, and war horses cannot protect us. We will never again say to our idols that they are our God. O Lord , you show mercy to those who have no one else to turn to."

Put on sackcloth and weep, you priests who serve at the altar! Go into the Temple and mourn all night! There is no grain or wine to offer your God.