Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah
aHear this, O priests!
Pay attention, O house of Israel!
Give ear, O house of the king!
For the judgment is for you;
for byou have been a snare at Mizpah
and a net spread upon cTabor.
2 And athe revolters bhave gone deep into slaughter,
but cI will discipline all of them.
3 aI know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;
Israel is defiled.
4 aTheir deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For bthe spirit of whoredom is within them,
and they know not the Lord.
5 aThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;
Israel and bEphraim shall stumble in his guilt;
bJudah also shall stumble with them.
6 aWith their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the Lord,
abut they will not find him;
bhe has withdrawn from them.
7 aThey have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;
for they have borne alien children.
Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
8 aBlow the horn in bGibeah,
the trumpet in cRamah.
Sound the alarm at dBeth‑aven;
we follow you, O Benjamin!
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I make known what is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become
like athose who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is aoppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after filth.
12 But I am alike a moth to Ephraim,
and alike dry rot to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah ahis wound,
then Ephraim went bto Assyria,
and sent to the great king.
cBut he is not able to cure you
or heal ayour wound.
14 For I will be alike a lion to bEphraim,
and like a young lion to the house of bJudah.
cI, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
15 aI will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and bin their distress earnestly seek me.