awhen I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the evil deeds of bSamaria,
for cthey deal falsely;
the thief breaks in,
and the bandits raid outside.
2 But they do not consider
that aI remember all their evil.
Now btheir deeds surround them;
cthey are before my face.
3 By their evil athey make athe king glad,
and the princes by their treachery.
4 aThey are all adulterers;
they are like a heated oven
whose baker ceases to stir the fire,
from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened.
5 On the day of aour king, the princes
became sick with the heat of wine;
he stretched out his hand with mockers.
6 For with hearts like an oven athey approach their intrigue;
all night their anger smolders;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot as an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All atheir kings bhave fallen,
and none of them calls upon me.
8 Ephraim amixes himself with the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 aStrangers devour his strength,
and bhe knows it not;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
and bhe knows it not.
10 aThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;
byet they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek him, for all this.
11 Ephraim is like a dove,
asilly and without sense,
calling to bEgypt, going to cAssyria.
12 As they go, aI will spread over them my net;
I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;
bI will discipline them caccording to the report made to their congregation.
13 aWoe to them, for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
bI would redeem them,
but cthey speak lies against me.
14 aThey do not cry to me from the heart,
but bthey wail upon their beds;
for grain and wine they gash themselves;
they rebel against me.
15 Although aI trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise evil against me.
16 They areturn, but not upward;
they are blike a treacherous bow;
their princes shall fall by the sword
because of cthe insolence of their tongue.
This shall be their derision din the land of Egypt.