Thematic Bible: National Sins


Thematic Bible



Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches:

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou hast waxed fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.

But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee: therefore thou leftest them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned and cried to thee, thou hearedest them from heaven; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies;


And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: If this people go up to perform sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah. Upon which the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. read more.
And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other he placed in Dan. And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan. And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Beth-el, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast to the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

If a ruler hearkeneth to lies, all his servants are wicked.

And he will give up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned, and who made Israel to sin.

Moreover, he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah to do the same. And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit idolatry, like the idolatries of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, who were better than thyself:


Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:

Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.

And he said to me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me: even to this very day. For they are impudent children and obstinate in heart. I send thee to them; and thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord GOD. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.

Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yes, thou shalt show her all her abominations.


And shalt return to the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul;

And the children of Israel cried to the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim.

If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary to me;

Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent and make supplication to thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; And so return to thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, who led them away captive, and pray to thee towards their land, which thou gavest to their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:


And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.

For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no god, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. read more.
Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.



Therefore saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of my adversaries, and avenge me of my enemies:

Shall I not visit for these things? saith the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people, that thou mayest know and try their way. They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. The bellows is burned, the lead is consumed by the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. read more.
Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.


Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thy heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: why should they say among the people, Where is their God?

Thus saith the Lord GOD; Smite with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and my eye shall weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because the LORD'S flock is carried away captive.

And it came to pass, that when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim; then he went in, and stood beside the wheels.


Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away their punishment: because they have despised the law of the LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked:

What more could have been done to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I expected that it would bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now come; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall of it, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. read more.
For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

And I gave them my statutes, and showed them my judgments, which if a man doeth, he shall even live in them. Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which if a man doeth, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly profaned: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.

Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.


Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened to my words, nor to my law, but have rejected it.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? read more.
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them.

Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD. read more.
But go ye now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spoke to you, rising early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do to this house, which is called by my name, in which ye trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.


Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more: her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them who are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I say to you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.


Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

For from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest every one dealeth falsely.

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in its broad places, if ye can find a man, if there is any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it. And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely. O LORD, are not thy eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return. read more.
Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God. I will go to the great men, and will speak to them; for they have known the way of the LORD, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.


Upon which the princes of Israel, and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous. And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

And the children of Israel said to the LORD, We have sinned: do thou to us whatever seemeth good to thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.


And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit its iniquity upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

So ye shall not pollute the land in which ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed in it, but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, in which I dwell: for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.


Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

That the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, neither be polluted any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God, saith the Lord GOD.


Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? read more.
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yes, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.


And when they entered among the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.


That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.


And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example to those that afterwards should live ungodly lives.

And Moses returned to the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

And Moses said, This shall be when the LORD shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; for that the LORD heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against him: And what are we? your murmurings are not against us, but against the LORD.

And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel which they had made. And the children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city. And they set up for themselves images and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree: read more.
And there they burnt incense on all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: For they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, Ye shall not do this thing.

Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are gone away backward. read more.
Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.


And the LORD said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of it.

Rivers of waters run down my eyes, because they keep not thy law.



O Israel, return to the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.


So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

If that nation against which I have pronounced, shall turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.





We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogance, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart. I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.


And Moses returned to the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin: and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.


Speak not thou in thy heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.


But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.




Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou settest thy heart as the heart of God:




Therefore also now, saith the LORD, Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: