“Now you people are making plans against the Lord’s kingdom, which belongs to David’s sons. There are many of you, and you have the gold calves Jeroboam made for you as gods.
“You people who have escaped from other nations, gather together and come before me; come near together. People who carry idols of wood don’t know what they are doing. They pray to a god who cannot save them.
I have seen the terrible things you have done: your acts of adultery and your snorting, your prostitution, your hateful acts on the hills and in the fields. How terrible it will be for you, Jerusalem. How long will you continue being unclean?”
The people of Israel trusted that god in the town of Bethel, and they were ashamed when there was no help. In the same way Moab will be ashamed of their god Chemosh.
The people from Israel are worried about the calf-shaped idol at Beth Aven. The people will cry about it, and the priests will cry about it. They used to shout for joy about its glory,
The places of false worship will be destroyed, the places where Israel sins. Thorns and weeds will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
But they still keep on sinning more and more. They make idols of their silver, idols that are cleverly made, the work of a craftsman. Yet the people of Israel say to each other, “Kiss those calf idols and sacrifice to them.”
They make promises by the idol in Samaria and say, ‘As surely as the god of Dan lives … ’ and, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives, we promise . . . ’ So they will fall and never get up again.”
All her idols will be broken into pieces; all the gifts to her idols will be burned with fire. I will destroy all her idols, and because Samaria earned her money by being unfaithful to me, this money will be carried off by others who are not faithful to me.”
My anger has started a fire that burns down to the place of the dead. It will burn up the ground and its crops, and it will set fire to the base of the mountains.