Bible Verses About Backsliders

They sacrifice to demons--no god! Gods they have not known--New ones--from the vicinity they came; Not feared them have your fathers!

The Rock that begat thee thou forgettest, And neglectest God who formeth thee.

And Jehovah seeth and despiseth--For the provocation of His sons and His daughters.

And He saith: I hide My face from them, I see what is their latter end; For a froward generation are they, Sons in whom is no stedfastness.

They have made Me zealous by `no-god,' They made Me angry by their vanities; And I make them zealous by `no-people,' By a foolish nation I make them angry.

For a fire hath been kindled in Mine anger, And it burneth unto Sheol--the lowest, And consumeth earth and its increase, And setteth on fire foundations of mountains.

I gather upon them evils, Mine arrows I consume upon them.

Exhausted by famine, And consumed by heat, and bitter destruction. And the teeth of beasts I send upon them, With poison of fearful things of the dust.

Without bereave doth the sword, And at the inner-chambers--fear, Both youth and virgin, Suckling with man of grey hair.

I have said: I blow them away, I cause their remembrance to cease from man;

If not--the anger of an enemy I fear, Lest their adversaries know--Lest they say, Our hand is high, And Jehovah hath not wrought all this.

For a nation lost to counsels are they, And there is no understanding in them.

If they were wise--They deal wisely with this; They attend to their latter end:

How doth one pursue a thousand, And two cause a myriad to flee! If not--that their rock hath sold them, And Jehovah hath shut them up?

When ye forsake Jehovah, and have served gods of a stranger, then He hath turned back and done evil to you, and consumed you, after that He hath done good to you.'

And the people saith unto Joshua, `No, but Jehovah we do serve.'

And Joshua saith unto the people, `Witnesses ye are against yourselves, that ye have chosen for you Jehovah to serve Him (and they say, `Witnesses!')

and, now, turn aside the gods of the stranger which are in your midst, and incline your heart unto Jehovah, God of Israel.'

And the people say unto Joshua, `Jehovah our God we serve, and to His voice we hearken.'

And Joshua maketh a covenant with the people on that day, and layeth on it a statute and an ordinance, in Shechem.

And Joshua writeth these words in the Book of the Law of God, and taketh a great stone, and raiseth it up there under the oak which is in the sanctuary of Jehovah.

And Joshua saith unto all the people, `Lo, this stone is against us for a witness, for it hath heard all the sayings of Jehovah which He hath spoken with us, and it hath been against you for a witness, lest ye lie against your God.'

`If ye at all turn back--you and your sons--from after Me, and keep not My commands--My statutes, that I have set before you, and ye have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them,

then I have cut off Israel from the face of the ground that I have given to them, and the house that I have hallowed for My name I send away from My presence, and Israel hath been for a simile and for a byword among all the peoples;

as to this house, that is high, every one passing by it is astonished, and hath hissed, and they have said, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus to this land and to this house?