18
In the name of the Lord God, who is called the God of Israel, you gathered gold like tin and amassed silver like lead.
19
But you laid your loins beside women, and through your body you were brought into subjection.
20
You put stain upon your honor, and defiled your posterity, so that you brought wrath upon your children and they were grieved at your folly,
21
so that the sovereignty was divided and a disobedient kingdom arose out of Ephraim.
22
But the Lord will never give up his mercy, nor cause any of his works to perish; he will never blot out the descendants of his chosen one, nor destroy the posterity of him who loved him; so he gave a remnant to Jacob, and to David a root of his stock.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.