“Son of man, offer a riddle, and tell a parable to the house of Israel.

Yet you say, ‘The behavior of the Lord is not right.’ House of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his behavior.”

I will multiply your people – the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities will be populated and the ruins rebuilt.

I was concerned for my holy reputation which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they went.

For seven months Israel will bury them, in order to cleanse the land.

Then the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward.

Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah! Sound the trumpet in Ramah! Sound the alarm in Beth Aven! Tremble in fear, O Benjamin!

They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral; they do so right beside every altar! They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple of their God!

Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel:

You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the forty years you spent in the wilderness, family of Israel.

Isaac’s centers of worship will become desolate; Israel’s holy places will be in ruins. I will attack Jeroboam’s dynasty with the sword.”

But on Mount Zion there will be a remnant of those who escape, and it will be a holy place once again. The descendants of Jacob will conquer those who had conquered them.

“I will not overlook, O sinful house, the dishonest gain you have hoarded away, or the smaller-than-standard measure I hate so much.

He replied, “To build a temple for her in the land of Babylonia. When it is finished, she will be placed there in her own residence.”

Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the Lord’s favor

the clan of the descendants of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; and the clan of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves –

Then someone will ask him, ‘What are these wounds on your chest?’ and he will answer, ‘Some that I received in the house of my friends.’

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

the men of her city must bring the young woman to the door of her father’s house and stone her to death, for she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by behaving like a prostitute while living in her father’s house. In this way you will purge evil from among you.

The Levite said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home. But no one has invited me into their home.