Hosea 4:2

Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates,

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,

him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed;

Finally, all of you be like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous,

Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men.

Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues with injustice.

Through Yahweh of Armies’ wrath, the land is burned up; and the people are the fuel for the fire. No one spares his brother.

“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

For Yahweh of Armies said, “Cut down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be visited. She is wholly oppression within herself.

“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth. There will be nothing of value among them.

Her princes within it are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain.

As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man, so the company of priests murder on the path toward Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.

But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.”

Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of perseverance, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve this.”

Cain said to Abel, his brother, “Let’s go into the field.” While they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and killed him.

He said, “I have been very jealous for Yahweh, the God of Armies; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.

Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?

“Bless God in the congregations, even the Lord in the assembly of Israel!”

Your princes are rebellious and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes and follows after rewards. They don’t defend the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”

The righteous perish, and no one lays it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one considers that the righteous is taken away from the evil.

and you will swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations will bless themselves in him, and they will glory in him.”

For wicked men are found among my people. They watch, as fowlers lie in wait. They set a trap. They catch men.

“For from their least even to their greatest, everyone is given to covetousness. From the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely.

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, “Violence and destruction!” because Yahweh’s word has been made a reproach to me, and a derision, all day.

has lent with interest, and has taken increase from the poor; shall he then live? He shall not live. He has done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood will be on him.

After this he will turn his face to the islands, and will take many; but a prince will cause the reproach offered by him to cease. Yes, moreover, he will cause his reproach to turn on him.

“Indeed they don’t know to do right,” says Yahweh, “Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces.”

You who turn justice to wormwood, and cast down righteousness to the earth:

Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness;

He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Their hands are on that which is evil to do it diligently. The ruler and judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful man dictates the evil desire of his soul. Thus they conspire together.

from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.

By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.

Water shall flow from his buckets. His seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than Agag. His kingdom shall be exalted.

You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name.

For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride, for the curses and lies which they utter.

If they say, “Come with us. Let’s lay in wait for blood. Let’s lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and will not be revoked, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath.

For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue mutters wickedness.

Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in their paths.

so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.

As a well produces its waters, so she produces her wickedness. Violence and destruction is heard in her. Sickness and wounds are continually before me.

I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries, and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You will not be made clean. How long will it yet be?”

House of David, Yahweh says, ‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

“ ‘Make chains; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

“You, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then cause her to know all her abominations.

Slanderous men have been in you to shed blood. In you they have eaten on the mountains. They have committed lewdness among you.

You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fatlings, but you don’t feed the sheep.

“ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Let it suffice you, princes of Israel: remove violence and plunder, and execute justice and righteousness; dispossessing my people,” says the Lord Yahweh.

He will speak words against the Most High, and will wear out the saints of the Most High. He will plan to change the times and the law; and they will be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.

“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.

When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside.

The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.

Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn’t depart.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”

You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit.

“You give your mouth to evil. Your tongue frames deceit.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

The earth also is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.

For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law;

“Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come out of the waters of Judah. You swear by Yahweh’s name, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness—

For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:

“How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.

It is because of the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the middle of her.

They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can’t touch their garments.

“Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have caused your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you will be taken with the hand.

For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured.

Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I discipline all of them.

Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood.

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.

They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.

You who hate the good, and love the evil; who tear off their skin, and their flesh from off their bones;

Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a short ephah that is accursed?

Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted, the oppressing city!

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.

“Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.

that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar.

Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.

Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.

who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out, and don’t please God, and are contrary to all men,

I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.