1819 verses about Idols

For she did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand.

I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.

I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest,’ and the animals of the field shall eat them.

I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me,” says Yahweh.

For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by name.

Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.”

For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols.

As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.

They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh.

Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.

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.

They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery.

I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.

“Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As Yahweh lives.’

For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer. Then how will Yahweh feed them like a lamb in a meadow.

Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!

Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

The wind has wrapped her up in its wings; and they shall be disappointed because of their sacrifices.

“Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute. Israel is defiled.

Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don’t know Yahweh.

They are unfaithful to Yahweh; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark. I will pour out my wrath on them like water.

Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; Because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.

Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing. There is prostitution in Ephraim. Israel is defiled.

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.

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.

Ephraim, he mixes himself among the nations. Ephraim is a pancake not turned over.

The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven’t returned to Yahweh 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.

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.

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

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 didn’t 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 this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

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.

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

For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and it will devour its fortresses.”

Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.

The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her.

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

They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh, 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 Yahweh’s house.

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.

A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.

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.

“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces 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.

The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.

It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king. Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel.

Samaria and her king float away, like a twig on the water.

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!”

You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness. At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed.

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

“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.

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.

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.

When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty in Baal, he died.

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.

“Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.

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

You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help.

Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes?’

Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”

Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green cypress tree; from me your fruit is found.”

Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,

I will break the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity to Kir,” says Yahweh.

but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it will devour its palaces.”

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.

“For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground.

“Go to Bethel, and sin; to Gilgal, and sin more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days,

but don’t seek Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and don’t pass to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nothing.

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can’t stand your solemn assemblies.

Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, house of Israel?

You also carried the tent of your king and the shrine of your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.

Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come!

you who rejoice in a thing of nothing, who say, ‘Haven’t we taken for ourselves horns by our own strength?’

The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”

but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”

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.”

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

Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

“All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn’t it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren’t they Jerusalem?

Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations.