Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant ¹  sins; do not allow such sins to control me. ²  Then I will be blameless, and innocent of blatant ³  rebellion.

Protect me, ¹  for I am loyal! O my God, deliver your servant, who trusts in you!

The one who robs ¹  his father and mother and says, “There is no transgression,” is a companion ²  to the one ³  who destroys.

He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see even greater abominations than these!”

The company of priests is like a gang of robbers, lying in ambush to pounce on a victim. They commit murder on the road to Shechem; they have done heinous crimes!

The experts in the law ¹  and the Pharisees ²  brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery. They made her stand in front of them

But Saul was trying to destroy ¹  the church; entering one house after another, he dragged off ²  both men and women and put them in prison. ³ 

King Hezekiah and all the people of Judah did not put him to death, did they? Did not Hezekiah show reverence for the Lord and seek the Lord’s favor? ¹  Did not ²  the Lord forgo destroying them ³  as he threatened he would? But we are on the verge of bringing great disaster on ourselves.” ⁴ 

Be careful ¹  not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, for when ²  they prostitute themselves ³  to their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invites you, ⁴  you will eat from his sacrifice;

and the priest is to make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering before the Lord for his sin that he has committed, ¹  and he will be forgiven ²  of his sin ³  that he has committed.

If a man is caught having sexual relations with ¹  a married woman ²  both the man who had relations with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge ³  evil from Israel.

Shall we once again break your commandments and intermarry with these abominable peoples? Would you not be so angered by us that you would wipe us out, with no survivor or remnant?

But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression. ¹ 

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers ¹  and engage in prostitution with detestable idols?

When the Lord first spoke ¹  through ²  Hosea, he ³  said to him, ⁴  “Go marry ⁵  a prostitute ⁶  who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, ⁷  because the nation ⁸  continually commits spiritual prostitution ⁹  by turning away from the Lord.”

So then, ¹  if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her ²  husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.

In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us ¹  the message of reconciliation.

We know that everyone fathered ¹  by God does not sin, but God ²  protects ³  the one he has fathered, and the evil one cannot touch him.

For all the nations ¹  have fallen ²  from the wine of her immoral passion, ³  and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have gotten rich from the power of her sensual behavior.” ⁴ 

She also saw ¹  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. ²  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, ³  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. ⁴