Israel's Unfaithfulness Punished
1
Say to your brethren, 'My people,'
And to your sisters, 'Mercy is shown.'
2
"Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
For a she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her b harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
3
Lest c I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was d born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with e thirst.
4
"I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the f children of harlotry.
5
For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, 'I will go after my lovers,
g Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.'
6
"Therefore, behold,
h I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
7
She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
i 'I will go and return to my j first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.'
8
For she did not k know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold -
Which they prepared for Baal.
9
"Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.
10
Now l I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
11
m I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths -
All her appointed feasts.
12
"And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
'These are my wages that my lovers have given me.'
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13
I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot," says the LORD.
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Cross References
Isaiah 50:1
Thus says the LORD: "Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 16:25
You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 13:22
And if you say in your heart, "Why have these things come upon me?" For the greatness of your iniquity Your skirts have been uncovered, Your heels made bare.
Jeremiah 13:26
Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face, That your shame may appear.
Ezekiel 16:37 - 39
Surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 16:4 - 7
As for your nativity, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water to cleanse you; you were not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.
Ezekiel 16:22
And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 14:3
Their nobles have sent their lads for water; They went to the cisterns and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty; They were ashamed and confounded And covered their heads.
Amos 8:11 - 13
Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.
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Cross References
John 8:41
"You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father - God."
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Cross References
Ezekiel 23:5
Oholah played the harlot even though she was Mine; And she lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians.
Hosea 2:8
For she did not know That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold - Which they prepared for Baal.
Hosea 2:12
And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, Of which she has said, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me.' So I will make them a forest, And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
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Cross References
Job 19:8
He has fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; And He has set darkness in my paths.
Lamentations 3:7
He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.
Lamentations 3:9
He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.
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Cross References
Luke 15:17
But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
Luke 15:18
I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
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Cross References
Isaiah 54:5 - 8
For your Maker is your husband, The LORD of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth.
Jeremiah 2:2
Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the LORD: "I remember you, The kindness of your youth, The love of your betrothal, When you went after Me in the wilderness, In a land not sown.
Jeremiah 3:1
They say, 'If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man's, May he return to her again?' Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me," says the LORD.
Ezekiel 16:8
When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine," says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 23:4
Their names: Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister; They were Mine, And they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
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Cross References
Isaiah 1:3
The ox knows its owner And the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.
Ezekiel 16:19
Also My food which I gave you - the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you - you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was," says the Lord GOD.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 16:37
Surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 7:34
Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land shall be desolate.
Jeremiah 16:9
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
Hosea 3:4
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.
Amos 5:21
I hate, I despise your feast days, And I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
Amos 8:10
I will turn your feasts into mourning, And all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist, And baldness on every head; I will make it like mourning for an only son, And its end like a bitter day.
New King James Version (NKJV) Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.