Yet when I cleansed you in your filthy lewdness, you did not become clean from your filth; you shall not again be cleansed until I have satisfied my fury upon you.
I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your shameless prostitutions on the hills of the countryside. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?
Indeed, I heard Ephraim pleading: “You disciplined me, and I took the discipline; I was like an untrained calf. Bring me back; let me come back, for you are the Lord my God.
Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; her downfall was appalling, with none to comfort her. Look, O Lord, at my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!
One third of you shall die of pestilence or be consumed by famine among you; one third shall fall by the sword around you; and one third I will scatter to every wind and will unsheathe the sword after them.
“My anger shall spend itself, and I will vent my fury on them and satisfy myself, and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy when I spend my fury on them.
Therefore I will act in wrath; my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity, and though they cry in my hearing with a loud voice, I will not listen to them.”
when I would heal Israel, the corruption of Ephraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside.
The priest shall examine the diseased article after it has been washed. If the diseased spot has not changed color, though the disease has not spread, it is unclean; you shall burn it in fire, whether the worn spot is on the inside or on the outside.
I said, “Surely the city will fear me; it will accept correction; it will not lose sight of all that I have brought upon it.” But they were the more eager to make all their deeds corrupt.
Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.