1 Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel: for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 2 Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery abound in the land, and they mingle blood with blood. 3 Therefore the land will mourn, and shall be diminished with all that dwell in it, with the wild beasts of the field, and the reptiles of the earth, and with the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea shall fail: 4 that neither any one may plead, nor any one reprove another; but my people are as a priest spoken against. 5 And you shall fall by day, and the prophet with you shall fall: I have compared your mother to night. 6 My people are like as if they had no knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall not minister as priest to me: and as you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 7 According to their multitude, so they sinned against me: I will turn their glory into shame.⁠a 8 They will devour the sins of my people, and will set their hearts on their iniquities. 9 And the priest shall be as the people: and I will avenge on him his ways, and I will repay him for his plans. 10 And they shall eat, and shall not be satisfied: they have prostituted themselves, and shall by no means prosper: because they have left off taking heed to the Lord. 11 The heart of my people has gladly engaged in fornication and wine and strong drink. 12 They asked counsel by means of signs, and they reported answer to them by their staffs: they have gone astray in a spirit of prostitution, and prostituted themselves shamelessly away from their God. 13 They have sacrificed on the tops of the mountains, and on the hills they have sacrificed under the oak and poplar, and under the shady tree, because the shade was good: therefore your daughters shall engage in prostitution, and your daughters-in-law shall commit adultery. 14 And I will not visit upon your daughters when they shall commit fornication, nor your daughters-in-law when they shall commit adultery: for they themselves mingled themselves with harlots, and sacrificed with polluted ones, and the people that understood entangled itself with a harlot. 15 But you, Israel, do not be ignorant, and do not go, men of Judah, to Gilgal; and do not go up to the house of On, and do not swear by the living Lord. 16 For Israel was maddened like a mad heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a wide place. 17 Ephraim, joined with idols, has laid stumbling blocks in his own way. 18 He has chosen the Canaanites: they have shamelessly prostituted themselves: they have loved dishonor through their insolence. 19 You are a blast of wind in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their altars.