¹ Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel, for the Lord shall enter into judgment with the inhabitants of the land: for there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land.

² Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood.

³ Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth in it shall languish with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air: yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be gathered together.

⁴ But yet let not any man judge: and let not a man be rebuked: for thy people are as they that contradict the priest.

⁵ And thou shalt fall to day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee: in the night I have made thy mother to be silent.

⁶ My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt not do the office of priesthood to me: and thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

⁷ According to the multitude of them so have they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.

⁸ They shall eat the sins of my people, and shall lift up their souls to their iniquity.

⁹ And there shall be like people like priest: and I will visit their ways upon them, and I will repay them their devices.

¹⁰ And they shall eat and shall not be filled: they have committed fornication, and have not ceased: because they have forsaken the Lord in not observing his law.

¹¹ Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the understanding.

¹² My people have consulted their stocks, and their staff hath declared unto them: for the spirit of fornication hath deceived them, and they have committed fornication against their God.

¹³ They offered sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burnt incense upon the hills: under the oak, and the poplar, and the turpentine tree, because the shadow thereof was good: therefore shall your daughters commit fornication, and your spouses shall be adulteresses.

¹⁴ I will not visit upon your daughters when they shell commit fornication, and upon your spouses when they shall commit adultery: because themselves conversed with harlots, and offered sacrifice with the effeminate, and the people that doth not understand shall be beaten.

¹⁵ If thou play the harlot, O Israel, at least let not Juda offend: and go ye not into Galgal, and come not up into Bethaven, and do not swear: The Lord liveth.

¹⁶ For Israel hath gone astray like a wanton heifer: now will the Lord feed them, as a lamb in a spacious place.

¹⁷ Ephraim is a partaker with idols, let him alone.

¹⁸ Their banquet is separated, they have gone astray by fornication: they that should have protected them have loved to bring shame upon them.

¹⁹ The wind hath bound them up in its wings, and they shall be confounded because of their sacrifices.

³ For now they shall say: We have no king: because we fear not the Lord: and what shall a king do to us?