Hosea 4:6-16

English Standard Version

⁶My people are destroyed ^(A)for lack of knowledge;
    ^(B)because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you ^(C)from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
    ^(D)I also will forget your children.

⁷^(E)The more they increased,
    the more they sinned against me;
    ^(F)I will change their glory into shame.
⁸^(G)They feed on the sin^[a] of my people;
    they are greedy for their iniquity.
⁹^(H)And it shall be like people, like priest;
    I will punish them for their ways
    and repay them for their deeds.
¹⁰^(I)They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
    they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
    to cherish ¹¹whoredom, wine, and new wine,
    which ^(J)take away the understanding.
¹²My people ^(K)inquire of a piece of wood,
    and their walking staff gives them oracles.
For ^(L)a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
    and they have left their God to play the whore.
¹³^(M)They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains
    and burn offerings on the hills,
^(N)under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
    because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the whore,
    and your brides commit adultery.
¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
    nor your brides when they commit adultery;
for ^(O)the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
    and sacrifice with ^(P)cult prostitutes,
and a people ^(Q)without understanding shall come to ruin.

¹⁵Though you play the whore, O ^(R)Israel,
    let not ^(S)Judah become guilty.
^(T)Enter not into ^(U)Gilgal,
    nor go up to ^(V)Beth-aven,
    and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”
¹⁶Like a stubborn heifer,
    Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
    like a lamb in a broad pasture?