Study Desk

But though they have sold themselves to many allies, I will now gather them together for judgment. Then they will writhe under the burden of the great king.

"Israel has built many altars to take away sin, but these very altars became places for sinning!

The people love to offer sacrifices to me, feasting on the meat, but I do not accept their sacrifices. I will hold my people accountable for their sins, and I will punish them. They will return to Egypt.

O people of Israel, do not rejoice as other nations do. For you have been unfaithful to your God, hiring yourselves out like prostitutes, worshiping other gods on every threshing floor.

So now your harvests will be too small to feed you. There will be no grapes for making new wine.

The prophet is a watchman over Israel for my God, yet traps are laid for him wherever he goes. He faces hostility even in the house of God.

The things my people do are as depraved as what they did in Gibeah long ago. God will not forget. He will surely punish them for their sins.

The Lord says, "O Israel, when I first found you, it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But then they deserted me for Baal-peor, giving themselves to that shameful idol. Soon they became vile, as vile as the god they worshiped.

The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will not be born or grow in the womb or even be conceived.

I have watched Israel become as beautiful as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children for slaughter."

O Lord , what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don't give birth and breasts that give no milk.

Then they will say, "We have no king because we didn't fear the Lord . But even if we had a king, what could he do for us anyway?"

The people of Samaria tremble in fear for their calf idol at Beth-aven, and they mourn for it. Though its priests rejoice over it, its glory will be stripped away.

Now whenever it fits my plan, I will attack you, too. I will call out the armies of the nations to punish you for your multiplied sins.

I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord , that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.'

For my people are determined to desert me. They call me the Most High, but they don't truly honor me.

No, I will not unleash my fierce anger. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy.

For someday the people will follow me. I, the Lord , will roar like a lion. And when I roar, my people will return trembling from the west.

Now the Lord is bringing charges against Judah. He is about to punish Jacob for all his deceitful ways, and pay him back for all he has done.

Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him. There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him—