Parallel Bible results for "hosea 4"

Hosea 4

The Message Bible MSG

1 Attention all Israelites! God's Message! God indicts the whole population: "No one is faithful. No one loves. No one knows the first thing about God.

2 All this cussing and lying and killing, theft and loose sex, sheer anarchy, one murder after another!

3 And because of all this, the very land itself weeps and everything in it is grief-stricken - animals in the fields and birds on the wing, even the fish in the sea are listless, lifeless.

4 "But don't look for someone to blame. No finger pointing! You, priest, are the one in the dock.

5 You stumble around in broad daylight, And then the prophets take over and stumble all night. Your mother is as bad as you.

6 My people are ruined because they don't know what's right or true. Because you've turned your back on knowledge, I've turned my back on you priests. Because you refuse to recognize the revelation of God, I'm no longer recognizing your children.

7 The more priests, the more sin. They traded in their glory for shame.

8 They pig out on my people's sins. They can't wait for the latest in evil.

9 The result: You can't tell the people from the priests, the priests from the people. I'm on my way to make them both pay and take the consequences of the bad lives they've lived.

10 They'll eat and be as hungry as ever, have sex and get no satisfaction. They walked out on me, their God, for a life of rutting with whores. They Make a Picnic Out of Religion

11 "Wine and whiskey leave my people in a stupor.

12 They ask questions of a dead tree, expect answers from a sturdy walking stick. Drunk on sex, they can't find their way home. They've replaced their God with their genitals.

13 They worship on the tops of mountains, make a picnic out of religion. Under the oaks and elms on the hills they stretch out and take it easy. Before you know it, your daughters are whores and the wives of your sons are sleeping around.

14 But I'm not going after your whoring daughters or the adulterous wives of your sons. It's the men who pick up the whores that I'm after, the men who worship at the holy whorehouses - a stupid people, ruined by whores!

15 "You've ruined your own life, Israel - but don't drag Judah down with you! Don't go to the sex shrine at Gilgal, don't go to that sin city Bethel, Don't go around saying 'God bless you' and not mean it, taking God's name in vain.

16 Israel is stubborn as a mule. How can God lead him like a lamb to open pasture?

17 Ephraim is addicted to idols. Let him go.

18 When the beer runs out, it's sex, sex, and more sex. Bold and sordid debauchery - how they love it!

19 The whirlwind has them in its clutches. Their sex-worship leaves them finally impotent.

English Standard Version ESV

1 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land;

2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

4 Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.

5 You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

7 The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.

8 They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity.

9 And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

10 They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish

11 whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.

12 My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.

13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

15 Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the Lord lives. ”

16 Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture?

17 Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone.

18 When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame.

19 A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.