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He had also built high places on the hills of Judah and had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray.
Jehoram received a letter from Elijah the prophet, which said: "This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: 'You have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah.
But you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and you have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab did. You have also murdered your own brothers, members of your father's house, men who were better than you.
So now the LORD is about to strike your people, your sons, your wives and everything that is yours, with a heavy blow.
2 Chronicles Chapter 21: Verses 11 - 14
Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
Psalms Chapter 73: Verse 27
During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there.
I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.
I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.
Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.
Jeremiah Chapter 3: Verses 6 - 9
Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.
Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.
"They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me," declares the LORD.
"Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer.
Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.
Jeremiah Chapter 9: Verses 1 - 5
This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you," declares the LORD, "because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods.
I will pull up your skirts over your face that your shame may be seen-
your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution! I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean?"
Jeremiah Chapter 13: Verses 25 - 27
The word of the LORD came to me:
"Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable practices
and say, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths.
No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.
" 'Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!"
I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.
" 'Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.
" 'I bathed you with water and washed the blood from you and put ointments on you.
I clothed you with an embroidered dress and put leather sandals on you. I dressed you in fine linen and covered you with costly garments.
I adorned you with jewelry: I put bracelets on your arms and a necklace around your neck,
and I put a ring on your nose, earrings on your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.
So you were adorned with gold and silver; your clothes were of fine linen and costly fabric and embroidered cloth. Your food was fine flour, honey and olive oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be a queen.
And your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, because the splendor I had given you made your beauty perfect, declares the Sovereign LORD.
" 'But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his.
You took some of your garments to make gaudy high places, where you carried on your prostitution. Such things should not happen, nor should they ever occur.
You also took the fine jewelry I gave you, the jewelry made of my gold and silver, and you made for yourself male idols and engaged in prostitution with them.
And you took your embroidered clothes to put on them, and you offered my oil and incense before them.
Also the food I provided for you,the fine flour, olive oil and honey I gave you to eat,you offered as fragrant incense before them. That is what happened, declares the Sovereign LORD.
" 'And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough?
You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.
In all your detestable practices and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.
" 'Woe! Woe to you, declares the Sovereign LORD. In addition to all your other wickedness,
you built a mound for yourself and made a lofty shrine in every public square.
At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty, offering your body with increasing promiscuity to anyone who passed by.
You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and provoked me to anger with your increasing promiscuity.
So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were shocked by your lewd conduct.
You engaged in prostitution with the Assyrians too, because you were insatiable; and even after that, you still were not satisfied.
Then you increased your promiscuity to include Babylonia, a land of merchants, but even with this you were not satisfied.
" 'How weak-willed you are, declares the Sovereign LORD, when you do all these things, acting like a brazen prostitute!
When you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were unlike a prostitute, because you scorned payment.
" 'You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband!
Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors.
So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.
" 'Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the LORD!
This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children's blood,
therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see all your nakedness.
I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring upon you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger.
Then I will hand you over to your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you naked and bare.
They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords.
They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers.
Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.
" 'Because you did not remember the days of your youth but enraged me with all these things, I will surely bring down on your head what you have done, declares the Sovereign LORD. Did you not add lewdness to all your other detestable practices?
" 'Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: "Like mother, like daughter."
You are a true daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and her children; and you are a true sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you with her daughters, was Sodom.
You not only walked in their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.
As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.
" 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have done more detestable things than they, and have made your sisters seem righteous by all these things you have done.
Ezekiel Chapter 16: Verses 1 - 51
Then I said to them: What is this high place you go to?' " (It is called Bamah to this day.) Judgment and Restoration
"Therefore say to the house of Israel: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Will you defile yourselves the way your fathers did and lust after their vile images?
When you offer your gifts,the sacrifice of your sons in the fire,you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. Am I to let you inquire of me, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I will not let you inquire of me.
Ezekiel Chapter 20: Verses 29 - 31
"Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother.
They became prostitutes in Egypt, engaging in prostitution from their youth. In that land their breasts were fondled and their virgin bosoms caressed.
The older was named Oholah, and her sister was Oholibah. They were mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.
"Oholah engaged in prostitution while she was still mine; and she lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians-warriors
clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all of them handsome young men, and mounted horsemen.
She gave herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians and defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after.
Ezekiel Chapter 23: Verses 2 - 7
I know all about Ephraim; Israel is not hidden from me. Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution; Israel is corrupt.
"Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD.
Israel's arrogance testifies against them; the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin; Judah also stumbles with them.
Hosea Chapter 5: Verses 3 - 5
When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
James Chapter 4: Verses 3 - 4
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For everything in the world,the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does,comes not from the Father but from the world.
1 John Chapter 2: Verses 15 - 16
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