Hear this, O priests;
And listen, O house of Israel;
And, O house of the king, give ear.
For to you belongs the judgment,
For you have been a snare at Mizpah
And a net spread over Tabor.

And the revolters have gone deep  ¹into slaughtering,
Though I am a chastisement to them all.

I know Ephraim,
And Israel is not hidden from Me;
For now, Ephraim, you have gone about as a harlot;
Israel is defiled.

Their doings do not permit them
To turn to their God;
For a spirit of harlotries is within them,
And they do not know Jehovah.

And the pride of Israel testifies to his face,
And Ephraim and Israel will stumble in their iniquity;
Judah also will stumble with them.

With their flocks and with their herds they will go
To seek Jehovah,
But they will not find Him;
He has withdrawn Himself from them.

They have acted treacherously against Jehovah,
For they have begotten strange children.
Now the new moon will devour them
With their apportionments.

Blow the horn in Gibeah,
The trumpet in Ramah;
Sound an alarm at Beth-aven:
Behind you, O Benjamin!

Ephraim will be a desolation
In the day of correction;
Among the tribes of Israel
I have made known what is sure.

The princes of Judah have become
Like those who move a boundary mark.
I will pour out upon them
My overflowing wrath like water.

Ephraim is oppressed,
Crushed by judgment,
For he was determined to walk
After man's command.

Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim
And like rottenness to the house of Judah.

When Ephraim saw his sickness,
And Judah his wound,
Ephraim went to Assyria
And sent word to the warrior king;
But he cannot heal you,
And the wound will not depart from you.

For I will be like a lion to Ephraim
And like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, I will tear them and go away;
I will carry them off, and there will be no one to deliver them.

I will go away, I will return to My place,
Until they acknowledge their offense
And seek My face;
In their affliction they will seek Me  ¹earnestly.

Come and let us return to Jehovah;
For He has torn us, but He will heal us,
And He has stricken us, but He will bind us up.

He will enliven us after  ¹two days;
On the third day He will raise us up,
And we will live in His presence.

Therefore let us know, let us pursue knowing Jehovah:
 ¹His going forth is as sure as the dawn,
And He will come to us as the rain,
As the late rain which waters the earth.

What shall I do with you, O  ¹Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
For your lovingkindness is like a morning cloud
And like dew that departs early.

Therefore I hewed them to pieces by the prophets;
I slew them by the words of My mouth,
And  ¹My judgments went forth as light.

For I delight in lovingkindness and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant;
There they have acted treacherously against Me.

Gilead is a city of those who commit iniquity;
It is tracked with blood.

And like bands of robbers lying in wait for a man,
The company of priests murder on the way to Shechem;
Indeed they commit wickedness.

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrid thing:
The harlotry of Ephraim is there;
Israel has defiled itself.

Also, O Judah, there is a  ¹harvest appointed for you,
When I will turn the captivity of My people.

When I would heal Israel,
Then the  ¹iniquity of Ephraim is discovered
As well as the evil deeds of Samaria;
For they practice falsehood.
And the thief comes inside;
The band of robbers makes raids outside.

And they do not say in their hearts
That I remember all their evil.
Now their doings are all around them;
They are before My face.

They make the king glad with their evil,
And the princes, with their lies.

All of them practice adultery;
They are like an oven heated by the baker:
He ceases from stirring the fire,
After kneading the dough, until it is leavened.

On the feast day of our king
The princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine;
He stretched out his hand with scorners.

For they have made their heart ready
Like an oven while they lie in wait:
All night long
Their baker sleeps,
But in the morning  ¹the oven burns
Like a flaming fire.

All of them are hot like an oven,
And they devour their  ¹judges;
All their kings fall;
There is no one among them who calls on Me.

Ephraim — among the peoples
He mixes himself;
Ephraim is a cake
 ¹Not turned.

Strangers have devoured his strength,
And he himself does not know it;
Indeed gray hairs are all over him,
And he himself does not know it.

And the pride of Israel testifies to his face;
Yet they have not returned to Jehovah their God,
And they have not sought Him, because of all this.

And Ephraim has become like a silly dove
Without  ¹understanding:
They call to Egypt;
They go to Assyria.

When they go,
I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like the birds of heaven;
I will chasten them according to the report given to their assembly.

Woe to them! For they have wandered from Me.
Devastation to them! For they have transgressed against Me.
And I would have redeemed them,
But they have spoken lies against Me.

And they did not cry unto Me in their heart
When they howled in their beds.
For grain and new wine they assemble themselves;
They rebel against Me.

Though I trained them and strengthened their arms,
They devise evil against Me.

They return, but not to Him who is on high;
They are like a  ¹deceitful bow.
Their princes will fall by the sword
Because of the rage of their tongue.
This will be their derision
In the land of Egypt.

A trumpet to your lips!
Like an eagle he comes against the house of Jehovah,
Because they have trespassed My  ¹covenant
And have transgressed against My law.

They will cry unto Me,
My God, we — Israel — know You.

Israel has cast off what is good;
The enemy will pursue him.

They have set up kings, but not by Me;
They have set up princes, but I did not acknowledge it.
With their silver and their gold they made
Idols for themselves,
That they might be cut off.

Your  ¹calf has cast you off, O Samaria;
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of  ²innocence?

For from Israel is this!
A workman made it;
Thus it is no God.
The calf of Samaria
Will be shattered to pieces.

For they have sown wind,
And they will reap a whirlwind.
It has no stalk; should there be a sprout,
It will not produce flour;
If it should produce,
Strangers will swallow it up.

Israel has been swallowed up;
Now they have become among the nations
Like a vessel in which no one takes pleasure.

For they have gone up to Assyria
Like a wild ass gone alone by itself;
Ephraim has hired lovers.

Indeed though they have hired such among the nations,
I will now gather them;
And they will begin to be diminished because of the burden
Of the king of the princes.

Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,
Altars will be to him for sin.

I wrote for him the ten thousand things of My law,
But they are considered as a strange thing.

As for the sacrifices of My offerings,
They sacrifice flesh and eat it,
But Jehovah has no delight in them.
Now He will remember their iniquity,
And He will punish their sins;
They will return to Egypt.

For Israel has forgotten his Maker
And has built palaces,
And Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
But I will send  ¹fire into his cities,
And it will devour its citadels.