Hosea 8:5

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

throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

They bear it on their shoulder. They carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. Yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer. It cannot save him out of his trouble.

Yahweh has accomplished his wrath. He has poured out his fierce anger. He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.

The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.

He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

As the fire that burns the forest, as the flame that sets the mountains on fire,

Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word,

You simple, understand prudence! You fools, be of an understanding heart!

“But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble; for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.

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?”

As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.

Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me.

He got rid of the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the army of the sky.

Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers;

because they didn’t believe in God, and didn’t trust in his salvation.

For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge; but the foolish despise wisdom and instruction.

because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of Yahweh.

and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear, and say, “That is true.”

your own iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together”, says Yahweh, “who have burned incense on the mountains, and blasphemed me on the hills. Therefore I will first measure their work into their bosom.”

“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways,

Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.

They were as fed horses roaming at large. Everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.

I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which will burn on you.”

Why do you boast in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? You trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who will come to me?’

You will know that I am Yahweh, when their slain men are among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols.

“ ‘ “In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I have cleansed you and you weren’t cleansed, you won’t be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have caused my wrath toward you to rest.

“Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As Yahweh lives.’

“Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!

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

Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.

So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness. At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed.

I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests,

But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they didn’t believe in him,

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

Yahweh said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

Pay attention to him, and listen to his voice. Don’t provoke him, for he will not pardon your disobedience, for my name is in him.

surely they shall not see the land which I swore to their fathers, neither shall any of those who despised me see it.

Fire came out from Yahweh, and devoured the two hundred fifty men who offered the incense.

Yahweh’s anger burned in that day, and he swore, saying,

Yet in this thing you didn’t believe Yahweh your God,

Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.

For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.

How long will you assault a man? Would all of you throw him down, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?

For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me; for you are my god!”

They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.

Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary.

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.

I have spread out my hands all day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts;

Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or why do you to go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don’t speak. They must be carried, because they can’t move. Don’t be afraid of them; for they can’t do evil, neither is it in them to do good.”

You, even of yourself, will discontinue from your heritage that I gave you. I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don’t know, for you have kindled a fire in my anger which will burn forever.”

Yahweh of Armies says, “Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh.

There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.

“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.

Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.’

The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.

“Therefore wait for me”, says Yahweh, “until the day that I rise up to the prey, for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour on them my indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth will be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.

and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,” says Yahweh.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!

They don’t eat when they come from the marketplace unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.)

For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,

Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.

Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

To whom did he swear that they wouldn’t enter into his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.

Yahweh said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? and how long will they not believe in me, for all the signs which I have worked among them?

For a fire is kindled in my anger, that burns to the lowest Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets the foundations of the mountains on fire.

Part your heavens, Yahweh, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.

“How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? How long will mockers delight themselves in mockery, and fools hate knowledge?

Therefore the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell therein are found guilty. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.

“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save.

Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?

How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart?

How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”

He has cut off all the horn of Israel in fierce anger. He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy. He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around.

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.

For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?

They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.