1.9 KiB
Chapter 12
- The people of Israel feed on the wind;
they chase after the east wind all day long.
They pile up lies and violence;
they are making an alliance with Assyria
while sending olive oil to buy support from Egypt.
- Now the LORD is bringing charges against Judah. He is about to punish Jacob for all his deceitful ways,
and pay him back for all he has done.
- Even in the womb,
Jacob struggled with his brother; when he became a man,
he even fought with God.
- Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won.
He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him.
There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him--
-
the LORD God of Heaven's Armies, the LORD is his name!
-
So now, come back to your God.
Act with love and justice,
and always depend on him.
- But no, the people are like crafty merchants
selling from dishonest scales--
they love to cheat.
- Israel boasts, "I am rich!
I've made a fortune all by myself! No one has caught me cheating!
My record is spotless!"
- "But I am the LORD your God,
who rescued you from slavery in Egypt.
And I will make you live in tents again, as you do each year at the Festival of Shelters.
- I sent my prophets to warn you
with many visions and parables."
- But the people of Gilead are worthless
because of their idol worship.
And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls;
their altars are lined up like the heaps of stone
along the edges of a plowed field.
-
Jacob fled to the land of Aram, and there he earned a wife by tending sheep.
-
Then by a prophet the LORD brought Jacob's descendants out of Egypt; and by that prophet
they were protected.
- But the people of Israel have bitterly provoked the LORD, so their Lord will now sentence them to death
in payment for their sins.