TSK · Numbers 25:6

Deliberate Sin“‘But the person who acts defiantly, whether native-born or a resident foreigner, insults the LORD. That person must be cut off from among his people.

Now the name of the Israelite who was stabbed– the one who was stabbed with the Midianite woman– was Zimri son of Salu, a leader of a clan of the Simeonites.

The Israelites took the women of Midian captive along with their little ones, and took all their herds, all their flocks, and all their goods as plunder.

When the LORD’s angel finished speaking these words to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly.

A Prayer of Ezra Now when these things had been completed, the leaders approached me and said,“The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites have not separated themselves from the local residents who practice detestable things similar to those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

Then Ezra got up from in front of the temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he stayed there, he did not eat food or drink water, for he was in mourning over the infidelity of the exiles.

At that time the Sovereign LORD of Heaven’s Armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth.

Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things? No, they are not at all ashamed! They do not even know how to blush! So they will die just like others have died. They will be brought to ruin when I punish them, says the LORD.

If you people who remain in Judah do that, then listen to the LORD’s message. This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel has said,‘If you are so determined to go to Egypt that you go and settle there,

“We will not listen to what you claim the LORD has spoken to us!

Let the priests, those who serve the LORD, weep from the vestibule all the way back to the altar. Let them say,“Have pity, O LORD, on your people; please do not turn over your inheritance to be mocked, to become a proverb among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples,“Where is their God?”

wild sea waves, spewing out the foam of their shame; wayward stars for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness have been reserved.