Yahweh Withdraws from Israel
Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Give ear, O house of the king!
For the judgment is for you,
For you have been a asnare at Mizpah
And a net spread out on Tabor.
2 And the arevolters have bdug deep into slaughtering,
But I will chastise all of them.
3 I aknow Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;
For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot;
Israel has defiled itself.
4 Their deeds will not allow them
To return to their God.
For a aspirit of harlotry is within them,
And they bdo not know Yahweh.
5 Moreover, the apride of Israel answers against him,
And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;
bJudah also has stumbled with them.
6 They will ago with their flocks and herds
To seek Yahweh, but they will bnot find Him;
He has cwithdrawn from them.
7 They have adealt treacherously against Yahweh,
For they have borne bchildren of strangers.
Now the cnew moon will devour them with their portions.
8 aBlow the horn in bGibeah,
The trumpet in Ramah.
Make a loud shout at Beth‑aven:
“cBehind you, Benjamin!”
9 Ephraim will become a adesolation in the bday of reproof;
Among the tribes of Israel I cwill make known what is true.
10 The princes of Judah have become like those who amove a boundary;
On them I will bpour out My wrath clike water.
11 Ephraim is aoppressed, crushed in judgment,
bBecause he was determined to walk after man’s command.
12 Therefore I am like a amoth to Ephraim
And like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 Then Ephraim saw his sickness,
And Judah his sore,
So Ephraim went to aAssyria
And sent to bKing Jareb.
But he is cunable to heal you
Or to cure you of your sore.
14 For I will be alike a lion to Ephraim
And like a young lion to the house of Judah.
bI, even I, will tear to pieces and go away;
I will carry away, and there will be cnone to deliver.
15 I will go away and return to My place
Until they aacknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will bseek Me earnestly.