Also to Abiathar the kohen the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you deserve death, but I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of Adonai Elohim before my father David, and because you were afflicted in everything with which my father was afflicted.”
I prayed, “O my God, I am ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God! For our iniquities are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.
Is Ephraim a precious son to Me? Is he a delightful child? For as often as I spoke against him, I still certainly remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him. I will surely have compassion on him.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
Were they ashamed of the abomination they committed? No, not ashamed, not at all— they do not know how to blush! So they will fall among the fallen. At the time of their punishment they will be brought down.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
If they are ashamed of all they have done, sketch out the House for them, its layout, its exits and its entrances, its complete design, with all its ordinances and all its laws. Write it down in their sight, so they may observe its complete design and all its ordinances and do them.
Though they know God’s righteous decree—that those who practice such things deserve death—they not only do them but also approve of others who practice the same.
Do you not know that to whatever you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to what you obey—whether to sin resulting in death, or to obedience resulting in righteousness?
Instead, we renounced the hidden shameful ways—not walking in deception or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by the open proclamation of the truth.
For see what this very thing—this grieving that God wills—has brought you! What diligence, what defense, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what rendering of justice! In everything you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.
How much more severe do you think the punishment will be for the one who has trampled Ben-Elohim underfoot, and has regarded as unholy the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
For the time has come for judgment to begin with the house of God. If judgment begins with us first, what will be the end for those who disobey the Good News of God?