If I had said, “I will say this,” [and expressed my feelings],
I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.

Thus they exchanged [the true God who was] their glory
For the image of an ox that eats grass.

Thus they provoked Him to anger with their practices,
And a plague broke out among them.

In this way they became unclean in their practices;
They played the prostitute in their own deeds [by giving their worship, which belongs to God alone, to other “gods”].

Behold, for so shall the man be blessed and divinely favored
Who fears the Lord [and worships Him with obedience].