My people die because they don't want to be near Me
1People of Israel, listen what the Lord says.
The Lord says the people who live in the land
are doing wrong.
They don't do what they have promised.
They do not love the Lord.
They don't want to be near Me.
2They curse each other, they tell lies,
they murder other people,
they steal, they have sex with other men's wives,
and they keep on killing people.
3That is why it is dry in the land
and why everyone who lives in the land suffers.
The animals and birds die,
and also the fish in the sea.
4The Lord says: ‘Priest, I am talking to you.
Your people say it is you
who are doing wrong, not someone else.
5You will die today and the prophet
and your mother will die with you.
6My people are dying because they
do not want to be near Me.
Priests, you have turned away from Me.
You did not want to listen to Me.
That is why I will also turn away from you
and you will not be my priest anymore.
You did not want to do what God wants.
That is why I don't want your children to be priests.
7There were more and more priests,
and they did a lot of sins_against Me.
They think they are very important,
but I will humiliate them.
8Priests, you are happy
when my people are doing a lot of sins,
because then they bring a lot of sin-offerings
that you can eat.
9The priests are the same as the people.
I will punish each one
who does something wrong.
10They will eat, but they will stay hungry.
They will have sex with a lot of women,
but they will not have any children,
because they have stopped serving the Lord.
11The priests don't want to do anything else.
They want only to have sex
with a lot of women and drink wine.’
God hates idols
12‘My people are talking to a piece of wood
and they ask it what they must do.
They think their staffs will tell them
what they want to know.
They do this because
they love to serve other gods
and because they are unfaithful to the Lord.
13My people sacrifice
on the mountains and hills.
They bring offerings under the big trees,
because the trees have shade.
That is why your daughters are prostitutes
and your daughters-in-law
commit_adultery.
14But I will not punish them,
because their husbands are having sex
with the temple-prostitutes
and they sacrifice with the temple-prostitutes.
A nation that is foolish will die.
They will destroy themselves.
15People of Israel, you want to be unfaithful,
but you must not seduce the people of Judah
so that they also become unfaithful.
Do not go into the town of Gilgal.
Do not bring offerings in the sinful town of Bethel.
When you promise to do something,
do not say: “As sure as the Lord lives.” ’
The Israelites do not want to listen to the Lord
16Yes, the Israelites
are as stubborn as cows
that do not want to listen to their owners.
They don't want to listen to the Lord.
That is why the Lord will not care for them
like people care for sheep in the field.
17The people of Ephraim love idols.
That is why you must leave them,
and let them go on that wrong way.
18When they drink wine and become drunk,
they go to prostitutes to have sex with them.
Their leaders love doing bad things.
19But when the storm winds blow them away,
their offerings to idols will not help them.
