For they have forsaken me and have bowed down to Astarte, goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, god of Moab, and Milcom, god of the Ammonites. They have not walked in my ways or done what is right in my eyes, according to my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did.
Meanwhile, the messenger of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite: Go and meet the messengers of Samaria’s king, and tell them: “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron?”
Have you not expelled the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests like the peoples of other lands? Everyone who comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams becomes a priest of no-gods.
The priests did not ask, “Where is the Lord?” The experts in the law did not know me: the shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after useless idols.
Why should I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, they swear by gods that are no gods. I fed them, but they commit adultery; to the prostitute’s house they throng.
Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Because you have caused more uproar than the nations surrounding you, not living by my statutes nor carrying out my judgments, nor even living by the ordinances of the surrounding nations;
Since they have incited me with a “no-god,” and provoked me with their empty idols, I will incite them with a “no-people”; with a foolish nation I will provoke them.
Happy are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people delivered by the Lord, Your help and shield, and the sword of your glory. Your enemies cringe before you; you stride upon their backs.
She named the child Ichabod, saying, “Gone is the glory from Israel,” referring to the capture of the ark of God and to her father-in-law and her husband.