4Attention all Israelites! GOD's Message! GOD indicts the whole population: "No one is faithful. No one loves. No one knows the first thing about God.H8085H1697H3068H1121H3478H3068H7379H3427H776H571H2617H1847H430H7762All this cussing and lying and killing, theft and loose sex, sheer anarchy, one murder after another!H422H3584H7523H1589H5003H6555H1818H5060H18183And because of all this, the very land itself weeps and everything in it is grief-stricken— animals in the fields and birds on the wing, even the fish in the sea are listless, lifeless.H776H56H3427H535H2416H7704H5775H8064H1709H3220H6224"But don't look for someone to blame. No finger pointing! You, priest, are the one in the dock.H376H7378H3198H376H5971H7378H35485You stumble around in broad daylight, And then the prophets take over and stumble all night. Your mother is as bad as you.H3782H3117H5030H3782H3915H1820H5176My people are ruined because they don't know what's right or true. Because you've turned your back on knowledge, I've turned my back on you priests. Because you refuse to recognize the revelation of God, I'm no longer recognizing your children.H5971H1820H1847H3988H1847H3988H3547H7911H8451H430H7911H11217The more priests, the more sin. They traded in their glory for shame.H7230H2398H4171H3519H70368They pig out on my people's sins. They can't wait for the latest in evil.H398H2403H5971H5375H5315H57719The result: You can't tell the people from the priests, the priests from the people. I'm on my way to make them both pay and take the consequences of the bad lives they've lived.H5971H3548H6485H1870H7725H461110They'll eat and be as hungry as ever, have sex and get no satisfaction. They walked out on me, their GOD, for a life of rutting with whores.H398H7646H2181H6555H5800H8104H3068
They Make a Picnic Out of Religion
11"Wine and whiskey leave my people in a stupor.H2184H3196H8492H3947H382012They ask questions of a dead tree, expect answers from a sturdy walking stick. Drunk on sex, they can't find their way home. They've replaced their God with their genitals.H5971H7592H6086H4731H5046H7307H2183H8582H2181H43013They worship on the tops of mountains, make a picnic out of religion. Under the oaks and elms on the hills they stretch out and take it easy. Before you know it, your daughters are whores and the wives of your sons are sleeping around.H2076H7218H2022H6999H1389H437H3839H424H6738H2896H1323H2181H3618H500314But I'm not going after your whoring daughters or the adulterous wives of your sons. It's the men who pick up the whores that I'm after, the men who worship at the holy whorehouses— a stupid people, ruined by whores!H6485H1323H2181H3618H5003H6504H2181H2076H6948H5971H995H383215"You've ruined your own life, Israel— but don't drag Judah down with you! Don't go to the sex shrine at Gilgal, don't go to that sin city Bethel, Don't go around saying 'GOD bless you' and not mean it, taking God's name in vain.H3478H2181H3063H816H935H1537H5927H1007H7650H3068H241616Israel is stubborn as a mule. How can GOD lead him like a lamb to open pasture?H3478H5637H5637H6510H3068H7462H3532H480017Ephraim is addicted to idols. Let him go.H669H2266H6091H324018When the beer runs out, it's sex, sex, and more sex. Bold and sordid debauchery— how they love it!H5435H5493H2181H2181H4043H7036H157H305119The whirlwind has them in its clutches. Their sex-worship leaves them finally impotent.H7307H6887H3671H954H2077
Dublin, OH
