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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.

If this rendering be approved, The wind hath bound her in its wings, the meaning is, that a sudden storm would sweep away the people, and thus would they be made ashamed of their sacrifices. So the past tense is to be taken for the future. We may indeed read the words in the past tense, as though the Prophet was speaking of what had already taken place. The wind, then, has already swept away the people; by which he intimates, that they seemed to have struck long and deep roots in their superstitions, but that the Lord had already given them up to the wind, that it might hold them tied in its wings. And wings, we know, is elsewhere ascribed to the wind, Psalm 104:3. And thus the verse will be throughout a denunciation of vengeance.

The other similitude or metaphor is the most appropriate, and harmonizes better with the subject; for were not men to support their minds with vain confidence, they could never with so much audacity despise God’s word. Hence they are said to tie the wind in their wings; being unmindful of their own condition, they attempt as by means of the wind to fly; but when they proudly raise up themselves, they have no support but the wind. Let us now proceed —