Cut sharply on the right! Swing to ¹  the left, wherever your edge ²  is appointed to strike.

Therefore I handed her over to her lovers, the Assyrians ¹  for whom she lusted.

When she saw them, ¹  she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ² 

Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. ¹ 

This is what the sovereign Lord says: Because your lust ¹  was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children you have given to them,

So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, ¹  because there they buried the people that craved different food. ² 

You men, ¹  how long will you try to turn my honor into shame? ²  How long ³  will you love what is worthless ⁴  and search for what is deceptive? ⁵  (Selah)

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

She lusted after the Assyrians – governors and officials, warriors in full armor, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men.

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

They are all like bakers, ¹  they ²  are like a smoldering oven; they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire until the kneaded dough is ready for baking.

“Because ¹  you have acted like a wanton prostitute ²  – a seductive mistress who practices sorcery, ³  who ⁴  enslaves ⁵  nations by her harlotry, ⁶  and entices peoples by her sorcery ⁷  –

But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. ¹  For apart from the law, sin is dead.

Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy.

But if they do not have self-control, let them get married. For it is better to marry than to burn with sexual desire. ¹ 

You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside ¹  the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires,

But ¹  among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, ²  or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. ³ 

But keep away from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, in company with others ¹  who call on the Lord from a pure heart. ² 

with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” ¹ 

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ²  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ³