Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all things.

There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.