Their wicked deeds do not allow them to return to their God; because a spirit of idolatry ¹  controls their heart, ²  and they do not acknowledge the Lord.

whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets.

O Israel, you have sinned since the time ¹  of Gibeah, and there you have remained. Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?

But you have plowed wickedness; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your chariots; ¹  you have relied ²  on your many warriors.

Is there idolatry ¹  in Gilead? ²  Certainly its inhabitants ³  will come to nothing! ⁴  Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!

Every person and animal must put on sackcloth and must cry earnestly ¹  to God, and everyone ²  must turn from their ³  evil way of living ⁴  and from the violence that they do. ⁵ 

When God saw their actions – they turned ¹  from their evil way of living! ²  – God relented concerning the judgment ³  he had threatened them with ⁴  and he did not destroy them. ⁵ 

Those who devise sinful plans are as good as dead, ¹  those who dream about doing evil as they lie in bed. ²  As soon as morning dawns they carry out their plans, ³  because they have the power to do so.

Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ¹  but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, because they have done such wicked deeds.”

The Babylonian tyrant ¹  pulls them all up with a fishhook; he hauls them in with his throw net. ²  When he catches ³  them in his dragnet, he is very happy. ⁴ 

The just Lord resides ¹  within her; he commits no unjust acts. ²  Every morning he reveals ³  his justice. At dawn he appears without fail. ⁴  Yet the unjust know no shame.

so that you may be like ¹  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him, ¹  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors ²  and sinners!’ ³  But wisdom is vindicated ⁴  by her deeds.” ⁵ 

“Woe to you, Chorazin! ¹  Woe to you, Bethsaida! If ²  the miracles ³  done in you had been done in Tyre ⁴  and Sidon, ⁵  they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

But he answered them, ¹  “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour is approaching, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

When the experts in the law ¹  and the Pharisees ²  saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” ³ 

Now ¹  they wanted to arrest him (but they feared the crowd), because they realized that he told this parable against them. So ²  they left him and went away. ³ 

“Blessed are you when people ¹  hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject you as evil ²  on account of the Son of Man!

The good person out of the good treasury of his ¹  heart ²  produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury ³  produces evil, for his mouth speaks ⁴  from what fills ⁵  his heart.