“Why therefore should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those who are not gods. Even though I fed them well, they committed adultery and thronged to the prostitute houses.
Have you not banished the kohanim of Adonai, the sons of Aaron, as well as the Levites, and then appointed your own priests—just as the peoples of the lands do? Can whoever comes to consecrate himself with a bull from a young cow and seven rams become a priest—for gods of nothing?
“So it will come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of My people—to swear by My Name, ‘As Adonai lives,’ just as they taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be built up in the midst of My people.
Your adulteries, your lustful neighings, the lewdness of your prostitution— on the hills in the field I have seen your loathsome acts. Oy you, Jerusalem! You are unclean! How much longer?”
Then will You say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says Adonai, ‘and have walked after other gods, served them and worshipped them, and have forsaken Me and have not kept My Torah.
You, generation, heed Adonai’s word! “Have I been a wilderness to Israel or a land of thick darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are free to roam. We won’t come to You any more’?
For the land is full of adulterers. The land mourns because of a curse. Pastures of the wilderness are dry. Their running is evil, and their might is not right.
“Then I Myself said: ‘How gladly would I make you sons and give you a pleasant land— the most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ I thought you would call Me—Avi!— and would not turn from following Me.
I noted that when backsliding Israel committed adultery I sent her away and gave her a certificate of divorce. Yet, unfaithful Judah, her sister, did not fear. Instead she also went and committed adultery.
If only I had a travelers’ lodging place in the wilderness, then I might leave my people and get away from them! For they are all adulterers, a bunch of traitors.
One has been detestable with his neighbor’s wife; another has wickedly defiled his daughter-in-law; yet another has violated his sister, his father’s daughter, in you.
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you as Zeboim? My heart is turning over within Me. My compassions are kindled.
“The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress should surely be put to death.
“Then I will draw near to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers those who extort a worker’s wage, or oppress the widow or an orphan, those who mislead a stranger. They do not fear Me,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality,
They made Me jealous with a non-god. They vexed Me with airy idols. So I will make them jealous with a non-people. With a foolish nation I will vex them.
You adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
and not intermingle with these nations who are still remaining among you. Do not mention the names of their gods or swear by them or worship them or bow down to them.