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4. Charge Against Israel

¹ Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,
   because the LORD has a charge to bring
   against you who live in the land:
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
   no acknowledgment of God in the land.
² There is only cursing, That is, to pronounce a curse on lying and murder,
   stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
   and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
³ Because of this the land dries up,
   and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
   and the fish in the sea are swept away.

    ⁴ “But let no one bring a charge,
   let no one accuse another,
for your people are like those
   who bring charges against a priest.
⁵ You stumble day and night,
   and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother—
    ⁶ my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

   “Because you have rejected knowledge,
   I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
   I also will ignore your children.
⁷ The more priests there were,
   the more they sinned against me;
   they exchanged their glorious God Syriac (see also an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition); Masoretic Text me; / I will exchange their glory for something disgraceful.
⁸ They feed on the sins of my people
   and relish their wickedness.
⁹ And it will be: Like people, like priests.
   I will punish both of them for their ways
   and repay them for their deeds.

    ¹⁰ “They will eat but not have enough;
   they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,
because they have deserted the LORD
   to give themselves ¹¹ to prostitution;
old wine and new wine
   take away their understanding.
¹² My people consult a wooden idol,
   and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;
   they are unfaithful to their God.
¹³ They sacrifice on the mountaintops
   and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar and terebinth,
   where the shade is pleasant.
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution
   and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

    ¹⁴ “I will not punish your daughters
   when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law
   when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots
   and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—
   a people without understanding will come to ruin!

¹⁵ “Though you, Israel, commit adultery,
do not let Judah become guilty.

   “Do not go to Gilgal;
   do not go up to Beth Aven. Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).
   And do not swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’
¹⁶ The Israelites are stubborn,
   like a stubborn heifer.
How then can the LORD pasture them
   like lambs in a meadow?
¹⁷ Ephraim is joined to idols;
   leave him alone!
¹⁸ Even when their drinks are gone,
   they continue their prostitution;
   their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
¹⁹ A whirlwind will sweep them away,
   and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

The Prophet here deplores the extreme wickedness of the people, that they would bear no admonitions, like those who, being past hope, reject every advice, admit no physicians, and dislike all remedies: and it is a proof of irreclaimable wickedness, when men close their ears and harden their hearts against all salutary counsels. Hence the Prophet intimates, that, together with their great and many corruptions, there was such waywardness, that no one dared to reprove the public vices.

He adds this reason, For the people are as chiders of the priest, or, they really contend with the priest: for some take כ, caph, in this place, not as expressive of likeness, but as explaining and affirming what is said, ‘They altogether strive with the priest.’ But I prefer the former sense, which is, that the Prophet calls all the people the censors of their pastors: and we see that froward men become thus insolent when they are reproved; for instantly such an objection as this is made by them, “Am I to be treated like a child? Have I not attained sufficient knowledge to understand how I ought to live?” We daily meet with many such men, who proudly boast of their knowledge, as though they were superior to all Prophets and teachers. And no doubt the ungodly make a show of wit and acuteness in opposing sound doctrine: and then it appears that they have learnt more than what one would have thought, — for what end? only that they may contend with God.

Let us now return to the Prophet’s words. But, he says: אך, ak is not to be taken here as in many places for “verily:” but it denotes exception, “In the meantime”. But, or, in the meantime, let no one chide and reprove another. In a word, the Prophet complains, that while all kinds of wickedness abounded among the people, there was no liberty to teach and to admonish, but that all were so refractory, that they would not bear to hear the word; and that as soon as any one touched their vices, there were great doctors, as they say, ready to reply.

And he enlarges on the subject by saying, that they were as chiders of the priest; for he declares, that they who, with impunity, conducted themselves so wantonly against God, were not yet content in being so wayward as to repel all reproofs, but also willfully rose up against their own teachers: and, as I have already said, common observation sufficiently proves, that all profane despisers of God are inflated with such confidence, that they dare to attack others. Some conjecture, in this instance, that the priest was so base, as to become liable to universal reprobation; but this conjecture is of no weight, and frigid: for the Prophet here did not draw his pen against a single individual, but, on the contrary, sharply reproved, as we have said, the perverseness of the people, that no one would hearken to a reprover. Let us then know that their diseases were then incurable, when the people became hardened against salutary counsels, and could not bear to be any more reproved. It follows —