MARRIAGE

15But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking. 16You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred! 17You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself. 18You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them. 19And you set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey that I had fed you. That is what happened, declares the Lord GOD. 20You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough? 21You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols. 22And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood. 23Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord GOD. And in addition to all your other wickedness, 24you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square. 25At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by. 26You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and increased your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger. 27Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct. 28Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied. 29So you extended your promiscuity to Chaldea, the land of merchants—but even with this you were not satisfied! 30How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute! 31But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. 32You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband! 33Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. 34So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite!

1Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother, 3and they played in Egypt, prostituting themselves from their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin bosoms caressed. 4The older was named Oholah, and her sister was named Oholibah. They became Mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their identities, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. 5Oholah prostituted herself while she was still Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors 6clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all desirable young men, horsemen mounted on steeds. 7She offered sexual favors to all the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of those for whom she lusted. 8She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her. 9Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted. 10They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and put her to the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgment against her. 11Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister. 12She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors dressed in splendor, horsemen riding on steeds, all desirable young men. 13And I saw that she too had defiled herself; both of them had taken the same path. 14But Oholibah carried her prostitution even further. She saw the men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in vermilion, 15wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. 16At the sight of them, she lusted for them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. 17Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. But after she had been defiled by them, she turned away in disgust. 18When Oholibah openly prostituted herself and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. 19Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt 20and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. 21So you revisited the indecency of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your bosom and pressed your young breasts. 22Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will incite your lovers against you, those from whom you turned away in disgust. And I will bring them against you from every side— 23the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them—all desirable young men, governors and commanders, officers and men of renown, mounted on horses. 24They will come against you with a host of peoples, with weapons, chariots, and wagons. They will array themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet. I will delegate judgment to them, and they will punish you according to their own standards. 25And I will set My jealous rage against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and ears, and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and your remnant will be consumed by fire. 26They will strip off your clothes and take your fine jewelry. 27So I will put an end to your indecency and prostitution, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’ 28For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Surely I will deliver you into the hands of those you hate, from whom you turned away in disgust. 29They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity 30have brought these things upon you, because you have prostituted yourself with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. 31Because you have followed the path of your sister, I will put her cup into your hand.’ 32This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup deep and wide. It will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much. 33You will be filled with drunkenness and grief, with a cup of devastation and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria. 34You will drink it and drain it; you will dash it to pieces, and tear your breasts. For I have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD. 35Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and prostitution.’” 36Then the LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you pass judgment against Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. 37For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols. 38They have also done this to Me: On that very same day, they defiled My sanctuary and profaned My Sabbaths. 39On the very day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary to profane it. Yes, they did this inside My house. 40Furthermore, you sisters sent messengers for men who came from afar; and behold, when they arrived, you bathed for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewelry. 41You sat on a couch of luxury with a table spread before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil, 42accompanied by the sound of a carefree crowd. Drunkards were brought in from the desert along with men from the rabble, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your head. 43Then I said of her who had grown old in adulteries: ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute, for that is all she is!’ 44And they slept with her as with a prostitute; they slept with Oholah and Oholibah, those lewd women. 45But righteous men will sentence them to the punishment of those who commit adultery and bloodshed, because they are adulteresses with blood on their hands. 46This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Bring a mob against them and consign them to terror and plunder. 47The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses. 48So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior. 49They will repay you for your indecency, and you will bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’”

1"If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?" declares the LORD. 2“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. 3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed. 4Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth. 5Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ This you have spoken, but you keep doing all the evil you can.” 6Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there. 7I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. 8She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well. 9Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.

2When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.” 3So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

14Yet you ask, "Why?" It is because the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have broken faith, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15Has not the LORD made them one, having a portion of the Spirit? And why one? Because He seeks godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. 16"For I hate divorce," says the LORD, the God of Israel. "He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence," says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.