Study Desk

So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion.

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethek of barley.

You will stumble by day, and the prophet will stumble with you by night. So I will destroy your mother-

They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with cult prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.

So let us know-let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth.

Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.

The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him.

So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove-calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.

They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.

Ephraim has provoked bitter anger, so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt upon him and repay him for his contempt.

So I will pounce on them like a lion; like a leopard on the path I will lurk.

So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.

So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.

So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael to consume the citadels of Ben-hadad.

So I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza, to consume its citadels.

So I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre to consume its citadels."