Study Desk

and do not realize that this reliance on foreigners has robbed them of their strength. Their days are numbered, but they don't even know it.

Israel flits around like a silly pigeon; first her people call on Egypt for help, and then they run to Assyria!

But I will spread out a net and catch them like birds as they go by. I will punish them for the evil they have done.

"They are doomed! They have left me and rebelled against me. They will be destroyed. I wanted to save them, but their worship of me was false.

They have not prayed to me sincerely, but instead they throw themselves down and wail as the heathen do. When they pray for grain and wine, they gash themselves like pagans. What rebels they are!

Even though I was the one who brought them up and made them strong, they plotted against me.

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,

"My people chose kings, but they did it on their own. They appointed leaders, but without my approval. They took their silver and gold and made idols—for their own destruction.

Stubborn as wild donkeys, the people of Israel go their own way. They have gone off to seek help from Assyria and have paid other nations to protect them.

But now I am going to gather them together and punish them. Soon they will writhe in pain when the emperor of Assyria oppresses them.

I write down countless teachings for the people, but they reject them as strange and foreign.

They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of the sacrifices. But I, the Lord , am not pleased with them, and now I will remember their sin and punish them for it; I will send them back to Egypt!

"The people of Israel have built palaces, but they have forgotten their own Maker. The people of Judah have built fortified cities. But I will send fire that will burn down their palaces and their cities."

And when the time comes for the appointed festivals in honor of the Lord , what will they do then?

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 Lord says, "When I first found Israel, it was like finding grapes growing in the desert. When I first saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But when they came to Mount Peor, they began to worship Baal and soon became as disgusting as the gods they loved.

But even if they did bring up children, I would take them away and not leave one alive. When I abandon these people, terrible things will happen to them."

The Lord says, "All their evildoing began in Gilgal. It was there that I began to hate them. And because of the evil they have done, I will drive them out of my land. I will not love them any more; all their leaders have rebelled against me.

The people of Israel are like a plant whose roots have dried up and which bears no fruit. They will have no children, but even if they did, I would kill the children so dear to them."