2. Now the lord is bringing charges against Judah.He is about to punish Jacob for all his deceitful ways,and pay him back for all he has done.
3. Even in the womb,Jacob struggled with his brother;when he became a man,he even fought with God.
4. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won.He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him.There at Bethel he met God face to face,and God spoke to him—
5. the lord God of Heaven’s Armies,the lord is his name!
6. So now, come back to your God.Act with love and justice,and always depend on him.
7. But no, the people are like crafty merchantsselling from dishonest scales—they love to cheat.
8. Israel boasts, “I am rich!I’ve made a fortune all by myself!No one has caught me cheating!My record is spotless!”
9. “But I am the lord your God,who rescued you from slavery in Egypt.And I will make you live in tents again,as you do each year at the Festival of Shelters.
10. I sent my prophets to warn youwith many visions and parables.”
11. But the people of Gilead are worthlessbecause of their idol worship.And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls;their altars are lined up like the heaps of stonealong the edges of a plowed field.
12. Jacob fled to the land of Aram,and there he earned a wife by tending sheep.