Like a muddied ¹  spring and a polluted ²  well, so is a righteous person who gives way ³  before the wicked.

They shed innocent blood – the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted by bloodshed. ¹ 

The filthy, ¹  stained city is as good as dead; the city filled with oppressors is finished! ² 

You are offering improper sacrifices on my altar, yet you ask, ‘How have we offended you?’ By treating the table ¹  of the Lord as if it is of no importance!

but that we should write them a letter ¹  telling them to abstain ²  from things defiled ³  by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled ⁴  and from blood.

Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ¹  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ² 

“But you are profaning it by saying that the table of the Lord is common and its offerings ¹  despicable.

Gilead is a city full of evildoers; ¹  its streets are stained with bloody footprints! ² 

Before I restore them ¹  I will punish them in full ²  for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own ³  with their detestable idols.” ⁴ 

“Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ¹  You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ²  You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ³  You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁴ 

The earth is defiled by ¹  its inhabitants, ²  for they have violated laws, disregarded the regulation, ³  and broken the permanent treaty. ⁴ 

But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! ¹  For this land is not secure! ²  Sin will thoroughly destroy it! ³ 

All the leaders of the priests and people became more unfaithful and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations. ¹  They defiled the Lord’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife, he may not take her back again. ¹  Doing that would utterly defile the land. ²  But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. ³  So what makes you think you can return to me?” ⁴  says the Lord.

They ¹  searched for their records in the genealogical materials, but did not find them. ²  They were therefore excluded ³  from the priesthood.

נ (Nun) They ¹  wander blindly ²  through the streets, defiled by the blood they shed, ³  while no one dares ⁴  to touch their garments.

I will do these things to you ¹  because you engaged in prostitution with the nations, polluting yourself with their idols.

So I poured my anger on them ¹  because of the blood they shed on the land and because of the idols with which they defiled it. ² 

Her prophets are proud; ¹  they are deceitful men. Her priests defile what is holy; ²  they break God’s laws. ³ 

save ¹  others by snatching them out of the fire; have mercy ²  on others, coupled with a fear of God, ³  hating even the clothes stained ⁴  by the flesh. ⁵