1819 verses about Idols

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.

All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images I will destroy; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return.”

Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

The seers shall be disappointed, and the diviners confounded. Yes, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God.”

Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh, and say, “Isn’t Yahweh among us? No disaster will come on us.”

Indeed all the nations may walk in the name of their gods; but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God forever and ever.

“It will happen in that day”, says Yahweh, “that I will cut off your horses out from among you, and will destroy your chariots.

I will destroy witchcraft from your hand; and you shall have no soothsayers.

I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out from among you; and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.

I will uproot your Asherah poles out from among you; and I will destroy your cities.

You will sow, but won’t reap. You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil; and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.

For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of Ahab’s house. You walk in their counsels, that I may make you a ruin, and her inhabitants a hissing; And you will bear the reproach of my people.”

Yahweh has commanded concerning you: “No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.

Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god.”

Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good.

Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?

“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?

Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake!’ or to the mute stone, ‘Arise!’ Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all within it.

I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place: the name of the idolatrous and pagan priests,

those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam,

those who have turned back from following Yahweh, and those who haven’t sought Yahweh nor inquired after him.

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.

Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a possession of nettles, and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The remnant of my people will plunder them, and the survivors of my nation will inherit them.

Yahweh will be awesome to them, for he will famish all the gods of the land. Men will worship him, everyone from his place, even all the shores of the nations.

This is the joyous city that lived carelessly, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss, and shake their fists.

“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?

“You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says Yahweh of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.

Then Haggai answered, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before me,’ says Yahweh; ‘and so is every work of their hands. That which they offer there is unclean.

For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep. They are oppressed, because there is no shepherd.