²⁵ But they broke faith with the God of their fathers, and ^(A)whored ^(B)after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.

⁵ And on her forehead was written a name of ^(A)mystery: ^(B)“Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.”

Hosea's Wife and Children

² When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, ^(A)“Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have ^(B)children of whoredom, for ^(C)the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

^15 (A)lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they ^(B)whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and ^(C)you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice,

The Lord Will Punish Israel

Amaziah's Idolatry

¹⁴ After Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, ^(A)he brought the gods ^(B)of the men of Seir and set them up as his gods and worshiped them, making offerings to them. ¹⁵ Therefore the Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought the gods of a people ^(C)who did not deliver their own people from your hand?”

Exile Because of Idolatry

⁷ And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, ^(A)who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods ^8 (B)and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, ^(C)and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. ⁹ And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, ^(D)from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up for themselves ^(E)pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, ¹¹ and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, ¹² and they served idols, ^(F)of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” ¹³ Yet the Lord ^(G)warned Israel and Judah ^(H)by every prophet ^(I)and every seer, saying, ^(J)“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

¹⁴ But they would not listen, ^(K)but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They despised his statutes ^(L)and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after ^(M)false idols ^(N)and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the ^(O)Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. ¹⁶ And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of ^(P)two calves; and they ^(Q)made an Asherah and ^(R)worshiped all the host of heaven and served ^(S)Baal. ^17 (T)And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings^[a] and used ^(U)divination and ^(V)omens and ^(W)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but ^(X)the tribe of Judah only.

^33 (A)As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and ^(B)whored after the Baals and made ^(C)Baal-berith their god.