that you built yourself an altar for prostitution and made yourself a high place [for ritual prostitution] in every square [of Jerusalem].

At the beginning of every street you built your high place and made your beauty repulsive; and you offered your body to every passer-by and multiplied your obscene immorality.

and does not eat [at the pagan shrines] on the mountains or raise his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her [monthly] time of impurity—

For when I had brought them into the land which I swore to give to them, they saw every high hill and every dark and leafy tree [as a place for idol worship], and there they offered their sacrifices and there they presented their offering that provoked My anger; there also they made their sweet-smelling aroma and there poured out their drink offerings.

They will repay you for your obscene conduct, and you will be punished for idol worship. Then you will know that I am the sovereign Lord."

Yes, [O mountains of Israel] I will cause men—My people Israel—to walk on you and take possession of you, so that you will become their inheritance and never again bereave them of children.’

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman (Gomer) who is beloved by her husband and yet is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love the raisin cakes [used in the feasts in pagan worship].”

My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

Your calf-idol is rejected, Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?

That idol was made by a workman -- it is not God! The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.

For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces [and pagan temples],
And Judah has built many fortified cities;
But I will send a fire upon their cities so that it may consume their palaces and fortresses.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, and saw their fathers as the first figs in the top of the fig tree. But they are gone to Baalpeor, and run away from me to that shameful Idol, and are become as abominable as their lovers.

The inhabitants of Samaria will lament over the calf idol of Beth Aven. Its people will mourn over it; its idolatrous priests will wail over it, because its splendor will be taken from them into exile.

Even the calf idol will be carried to Assyria, as tribute for the great king. Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be put to shame because of its wooden idol.

Also the high places of Aven (Beth-aven), the sin of Israel, will be destroyed;
The thorn and the thistle will grow on their [pagan] altars,
And [in despair] they will say to the mountains,
“Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

And now they sin again, and they make for themselves a molten idol, idols from their silver metal according to their understanding, all of them the work of skilled craftsmen. To these they say, "Sacrifice!" People are kissing bull calves.

“Come to Bethel [where the golden calf is] and transgress;
In Gilgal [where idols are worshiped] multiply transgression;
Bring your sacrifices every morning,
Your tithes every three days!

“Seek the Lord [search diligently for Him and long for Him as your most essential need] so that you may live,
Or He will rush down like a [devouring] fire, O house of Joseph,
And there will be no one to quench the flame for [idolatrous] Bethel,

But ye carried the tent of your king-idol, and your Saturn-images, - the star of your gods, which ye made for yourselves:

The Lord God has sworn [an oath] by Himself—the Lord God of hosts, says:
“I loathe and reject the [self-centered] arrogance of Jacob (Israel),
And I hate his palaces and citadels;
Therefore, I shall hand over the [idolatrous] city [of Samaria] with all that it contains [to the Assyrian invaders].”

These are the ones who now take oaths in the name of the sinful idol goddess of Samaria. They vow, 'As surely as your god lives, O Dan,' or 'As surely as your beloved one lives, O Beer Sheba!' But they will fall down and not get up again."

All this is because of the rebellion and apostasy of Jacob
And for the sins of the house of Israel (the Northern Kingdom).
What is the rebellion and apostasy of Jacob?
Is it not [the abandonment of God in order to worship the idols of] Samaria?
What are the high places [of idolatry] in Judah (the Southern Kingdom)?
Are they not Jerusalem [the capital and center of corruption]?

And I will pluck up your idol poles out of your midst: so will I destroy your cities.

The Lord has issued an order concerning you:

There will be no offspring
to carry on your name.
I will eliminate the carved idol and cast image
from the house of your gods;
I will prepare your grave,
for you are contemptible.

What use is a carved idol
after its craftsman carves it?
It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies.
For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it
and makes idols that cannot speak.

I will also stretch out My hand on Judah and on all the people of Jerusalem. And I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, the name of the idol-worshipers, with the priests,

And those who bow down and worship the host of heaven [the sun, the moon, and the stars] on their housetops
And those who bow down and swear [oaths] to [and pretend to worship] the Lord and [yet also] swear by [the pagan god called] Milcom [god of the Ammonites],

At the same time, I'll punish every idol worshipper, especially those who are filling their master's temple with violence and deceit.

Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.

[No], you set up a tent for Moloch [i.e., a heathen idol worshiped by the Ammonites] and [another one for] the star [representing the false god] Rephan and images used in worshiping them. I will allow you to be transported beyond [the country of] Babylon.'

"Gentlemen, why are you doing these things? [Do you not know that] we are also human beings with the same kind of feelings that you have? And we are just bringing you the good news that you should turn away from these useless things [i.e., idol worship] and [turn] to the living God, who created the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.

but to write [urging] them to avoid [eating] what is contaminated by [its association with] idol worship, from sexual immorality, from [eating] strangled animals and from [drinking] blood.

To be abstaining from idol sacrifices, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication, - From which, if ye keep yourselves, ye shall prosper. Fare ye well.

And Paul waiting for them among the Athenians, his spirit was excited in him, seeing the city being addicted to idol worship.

Since therefore we are God's children, we should not think that the Deity is like gold, silver or stone, to be carved [into an idol] by the design and skill of men.

And now you have seen and heard, not only here in Ephesus, but throughout almost all of [the province of] Asia, that this Paul has been convincing people, [even] to the point of turning many away [from idol worship]. [He is] saying that hand-made gods [like we make] are not real [gods at all].

But, concerning them of the nations who have believed, we ourselves, sent, deciding that they should be guarding themselves, both as to idol sacrifice, and blood, and what is strangled, and fornication.

and exchanged the majesty of the imperishable God for an idol, graven in the likeness of perishable man, or of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.

they changed the true God for an idol, and adored and served the creature more than the creator, who is blessed for ever.

But what I meant was that you were not to associate with any one bearing the name of "brother," if he was addicted to fornication or avarice or idol-worship or abusive language or hard-drinking or greed of gain. With such a man you ought not even to eat.

Now, concerning the idol-sacrifices, we are aware - because we, all, have knowledge, - knowledge, puffeth up, but, love, buildeth up;

Concerning, then, the eating of idol-sacrifices, we are aware - that an idol is, nothing, in the world, and that, none, is God save one.

Howbeit, not in all, is the knowledge; but, some, by their familiarity, until even now, with the idol, as an idol-sacrifice, eat it, and, their conscience, being, weak, is defiled.

However, food will not bring us closer to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat food that has been offered to an idol, and no better off if we do.

For, if anyone should see theewho hast knowledge, in an idol-temple, reclining, will not, his conscience, being, weak, be built up for the eating of the idol-sacrifices?

And you must not be idolaters like some of them. as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, And they rose up for idol dances.

Therefore, my dearly loved ones, run away from idol worship.

What, then, am I saying? - that, an idol-sacrifice, is anything? or that, an idol, is anything?

But if someone says to you, “This is food offered to an idol,” do not eat it, out of consideration for the one who told you, and for conscience’ sake.

Now you know full well the doings of our lower natures. Fornication, impurity, indecency, idol-worship, sorcery;

idol-worship, sorcery, quarrels, party-spirit, jealousy, passionate anger, intrigues, factions, sectarianism,

For you [should] know this for certain: No sexually immoral or [morally] impure person, or greedy person, who is [the same as] an idol worshiper, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

For the time past of life may suffice us to have worked the will of the Gentiles, when we spent our life in lasciviousness, lusts, hard drinking, revelry, banqueting, and abominable idol worship.

But I have a few things against thee, because thou have there men who adhere to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a snare before the sons of Israel, even to eat idol sacrifices, and to fornicate.

Nevertheless, I have against thee that thou tolerate thy woman Jezebel. She calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and leads astray my bondmen to fornicate, and to eat idol sacrifices.

But to the cowards, unbelievers, detestable persons, murderers, the sexually immoral, and those who practice magic spells, idol worshipers, and all those who lie, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. That is the second death."