Study Desk

"So I will lead her into the desert and speak words of comfort to her.

So I bought her for fifteen pieces of silver money and ten baskets of barley.

My people are destroyed because they have not learned. You were not willing to learn. So I am not willing to have you be My religious leader. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children.

They feed on the sin of My people, and so they want them to sin more.

They give gifts in worship on the tops of the mountains and burn special perfume on the hills. They do this under oak, poplar and terebinth trees, because their shadow is pleasing. So your daughters are like women who sell the use of their bodies, and your brides do sex sins.

So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like a wasting disease to the people of Judah.

So keep on trying to know the Lord. His coming to us is as sure as the rising of the sun. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain giving water to the earth."

So I have cut them in pieces by the men who speak for Me. I have killed them by the words of My mouth. My punishments come upon you like lightning.

They have set up kings, but not by Me. They have chosen leaders, but I did not know it. They have made false gods for themselves out of silver and gold, so they will be destroyed.

in Israel? A workman made this calf, so it is not God. The calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.

They speak empty words and make false promises, so punishment grows like weeds of poison in a plowed field.

So return to your God. Show kindness and do what is fair, and wait for your God all the time.

But Ephraim has made the Lord very angry. So the Lord will leave on him the guilt of his blood, and make his shame return to him.

So they will be like the morning cloud, and like the water on the grass in the early morning which is soon gone. They will be like the dust of the grain that is blown away from the grain-floor, and like smoke from a fire.

So I will be like a lion to them. I will lie in wait by the road like a leopard.

So I am going to move them from the place where you have sold them, and do to you what you have done to them.

So I will send fire upon the people of Hazael, and it will destroy the strong-places of Ben-hadad.

So I will send fire upon the wall of Gaza, and it will destroy her strong-places.

So I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it will destroy her strong-places."

So I will send fire upon Teman, and it will destroy the strong-places of Bozrah."