²⁵ And they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers, and ^(A)played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.

⁵ And on her forehead a name was written:

^(A)MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.

The Family of Hosea

² When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

¹⁵ lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they ^(A)play the harlot with their gods and make sacrifice to their gods, and one of them ^(B)invites you and you ^(C)eat of his sacrifice,

Judgment of Israel’s Sin

¹⁴ Now it was so, after Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites, that ^(A)he brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up to be ^(B)his gods, and bowed down before them and burned incense to them. ¹⁵ Therefore the anger of the Lord was aroused against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet who said to him, “Why have you sought ^(C)the gods of the people, which ^(D)could not rescue their own people from your hand?”

⁷ For ^(A)so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had ^(B)feared other gods, ⁸ and ^(C)had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. ⁹ Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves ^[a]high places in all their cities, ^(D)from watchtower to fortified city. ^10 (E)They set up for themselves sacred pillars and ^(F)wooden images^{[b] (G)}on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, ¹² for they served idols, ^(H)of which the Lord had said to them, ^(I)“You shall not do this thing.”

¹³ Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His ^(J)prophets, ^(K)every seer, saying, ^(L)“Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” ¹⁴ Nevertheless they would not hear, but ^(M)stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who ^(N)did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ And they ^(O)rejected His statutes ^(P)and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed ^(Q)idols, ^(R)became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should ^(S)not do like them. ¹⁶ So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, ^(T)made for themselves a molded image and two calves, ^(U)made a wooden image and worshiped all the ^(V)host of heaven, ^(W)and served Baal. ^17 (X)And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, ^(Y)practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and ^(Z)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left ^(AA)but the tribe of Judah alone.

³³ So it was, ^(A)as soon as Gideon was dead, that the children of Israel again ^(B)played the harlot with the Baals, ^(C)and made Baal-Berith their god.