Bunch yourselves together like straw, ¹  you undesirable ²  nation,

When David went home to pronounce a blessing on his own house, ¹  Michal, Saul’s daughter, came out to meet him. ²  She said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished ³  himself this day! He has exposed himself today before his servants’ slave girls the way a vulgar fool ⁴  might do!”

People of Jerusalem, ¹  I have seen your adulterous worship, your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods. ²  I have seen your disgusting acts of worship ³  on the hills throughout the countryside. You are doomed to destruction! ⁴  How long will you continue to be unclean?’”

and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women ¹  and were inflamed in their passions ²  for one another. Men ³  committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

They had sex with her ¹  as one does with a prostitute. In this way they had sex with Oholah and Oholibah, promiscuous women.

They ¹  devour widows’ property, ²  and as a show make long prayers. These men will receive a more severe punishment.”

These men are ¹  dangerous reefs ²  at your love feasts, ³  feasting without reverence, ⁴  feeding only themselves. ⁵  They are ⁶  waterless ⁷  clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit ⁸  – twice dead, ⁹  uprooted;

The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ¹  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ² 

These ten times ¹  you have been reproaching me; ²  you are not ashamed to attack me! ³ 

On every high, elevated hill you prepare your bed; you go up there to offer sacrifices.

“‘How sick is your heart, declares the sovereign Lord, when you perform all of these acts, the deeds of a bold prostitute.

They ¹  devour ²  widows’ property, ³  and as a show make long prayers. They will receive a more severe punishment.”

For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians ¹  desire. ²  You lived then ³  in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, ⁴  and wanton idolatries. ⁵ 

to execute judgment on ¹  all, and to convict every person ²  of all their thoroughly ungodly deeds ³  that they have committed, ⁴  and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ⁵ 

therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Surely I have spoken in the fire of my zeal against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who with great joy and utter contempt have made my land their property and prey, because of its pasture.’

For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, “I will seek out ¹  my lovers; ²  they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine. ³ 

I tell you, even though the man inside ¹  will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of the first man’s ²  sheer persistence ³  he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

For certain men ¹  have secretly slipped in among you ²  – men who long ago ³  were marked out ⁴  for the condemnation I am about to describe ⁵  – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil ⁶  and who deny our only Master ⁷  and Lord, ⁸  Jesus Christ.