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Further Assurances of God’s Redeeming Love

3The Lord said to me again, ‘Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.’ ²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barley and a measure of wine.^{* 3}And I said to her, ‘You must remain as mine for many days; you shall not play the whore, you shall not have intercourse with a man, nor I with you.’ ⁴For the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. ⁵Afterwards the Israelites shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; they shall come in awe to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

God Accuses Israel

4Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel;
   for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or loyalty,
   and no knowledge of God in the land.
² Swearing, lying, and murder,
   and stealing and adultery break out;
   bloodshed follows bloodshed.
³ Therefore the land mourns,
   and all who live in it languish;
together with the wild animals
   and the birds of the air,
   even the fish of the sea are perishing.

⁴ Yet let no one contend,
   and let none accuse,
   for with you is my contention, O priest.^*
5 You shall stumble by day;
   the prophet also shall stumble with you by night,
   and I will destroy your mother.
⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
   because you have rejected knowledge,
   I reject you from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
   I also will forget your children.

⁷ The more they increased,
   the more they sinned against me;
   they changed^* their glory into shame.
⁸ They feed on the sin of my people;
   they are greedy for their iniquity.
⁹ And it shall be like people, like priest;
   I will punish them for their ways,
   and repay them for their deeds.
¹⁰ They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
   they shall play the whore, but not multiply;
because they have forsaken the Lord
   to devote themselves to