For You are our Father— even if Abraham would not know us or Israel not recognize us. You, Adonai, are our Father, our Redeemer— from everlasting is Your Name.
“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.
Erect road markers, set up signposts! Set your heart toward the highway, the way by which you traveled! Return, O virgin Israel, return to your cities.
When Adonai first spoke with Hosea, Adonai said to Hosea: “Go, get yourself a prostitute as a wife and children with a prostitute! For the land is an unfaithful prostitute, far from following after Adonai.”
“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. So if I am Father, where is My honor? If I am Master, where is My reverence?”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“you, kohanim who despise My Name!” But you say, “How did we despise Your Name?”
Judah has dealt treacherously, an abomination done in Israel, even in Jerusalem! For Judah has defiled Adonai’s Sanctuary, which He loves, and married the daughter of a foreign god.
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks lies he is just being himself—for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Do not be like Cain, who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, while his brother’s were righteous.