I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly."

But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.

When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside.

They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all the night. In the morning it burns as a flaming fire.

They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me.

The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven't returned to the LORD their God, nor sought him, for all this.

"Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.

When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.

Woe to them. For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them. For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

They haven't cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.

Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me.

They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

"Put the trumpet to your lips. Something like an eagle is over the LORD's house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law.

They cry to me, 'My God, we Israel acknowledge you.'

They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I did not approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off.

Let Samaria throw out his calf idol. My anger burns against them. How long will it be until they are capable of purity?

For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.

Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing.

For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself.

But although they sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them; and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones.

Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning.

I wrote for him the many things of my law; but they were regarded as a strange thing.

As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; But the LORD doesn't accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt.

They won't dwell in the LORD's land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.

They won't pour out wine offerings to the LORD, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into the house of the LORD.

For, behold, they have gone away from destruction. Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents.

They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.

Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them.

Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they bring forth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb."

My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that puts forth his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars. As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones.

Their heart is divided. Now they will be found guilty. He will demolish their altars. He will destroy their sacred stones.

Surely now they will say, "We have no king; for we do not fear the LORD; and the king, what can he do for us?"

They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, "Cover us." and the hills, "Fall on us."

"Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn't overtake them in Gibeah.

When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the nations will be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions.

They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images.

Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by his arms; but they did not know that I healed them.

"They won't return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent.

My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won't exalt them.

They will walk after the LORD, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west.

They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses," says the LORD.

Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.

Ephraim said, "Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won't find in me any iniquity that is sin."

If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.

Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, 'They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.'

Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney.

According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me.

Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open."

Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

How the animals groan. The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen, so do they run.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as a mighty people drawn up for battle.

They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they do not swerve off course.

Neither does one jostle another; they march everyone in his path, and they burst through the defenses, and do not break ranks.

They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.

Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, "Spare your people, LORD, and do not give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'"

I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,

and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a faraway nation, for the LORD has spoken it."

Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Damascus, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron;

Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they carried away captive the whole community, to deliver them up to Edom;

Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Tyre, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they delivered up the whole community to Edom, and did not remember the brotherly covenant;

Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.

Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected the LORD's law, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked;

Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;

They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name;

and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.

Do two walk together, unless they have agreed?

"Indeed they do not know to do right," says the LORD, "Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces."

The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that behold, "The days shall come on you that they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks.

They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas. Alas.' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border?

who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the best oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.

Therefore they will now go captive with the first who go captive; and the feasting and lounging will end.

It will happen, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die.

For, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, house of Israel," says the LORD, the God of Hosts; "and they will afflict you from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of the Arabah."

It happened that, when they made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, "Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you. How could Jacob stand? For he is small."

The songs of the temple will be wailings in that day," says the Lord GOD. "The dead bodies will be many. In every place they will throw them out with silence.

They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek the word of the LORD, and will not find it.

Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, 'As your god, Dan, lives;' and, 'As the way of Beersheba lives;' they will fall, and never rise up again."

Though they dig into Sheol, there my hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, there I will bring them down.

Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them.

Though they go into captivity before their enemies, there I will command the sword, and it will kill them. I will set my eyes on them for disaster, and not for good.

I will bring my people Israel back from captivity, and they will rebuild the ruined cities, and inhabit them; and they will plant vineyards, and drink wine from them. They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.

I will plant them on their land, and they will no more be plucked up out of their land which I have given them," says the LORD your God.

"If thieves came to you, if robbers by night?oh, what disaster awaits you?wouldn't they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn't they leave some gleaning grapes?

For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.

The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them, and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of Esau." Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

Those of the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead.

Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his god. They threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the innermost parts of the ship, and he was laying down, and was fast asleep.

They all said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is on us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

Then they asked him, "Tell us, please, for whose cause this evil is on us. What is your occupation? Where do you come from? What is your country? Of what people are you?"