Warnings and exhortations to the king, to the priests, and to the people
5
📚✭“Hear this,O priests! Pay attention,
house of Israel! Give ear,
O royal house!
For judgment is against you,
because you have been
a snare at Mizpah,
and a net✭ spread on Tabor.
2 📚✭And the rebels are deep in slaughter,
though I have rebuked them all.
3 📚I know✭ Ephraim✭, and
Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, O Ephraim,
you engage in prostitution✭,
and Israel is defiled.
4 📚“They will not employ
their deeds to turn✭ to their God,
for the spirit of prostitution✭ is among them,
and they do not know✭ the LORD.
5 📚And the pride✭ of Israel testifies
against him.
Therefore Israel and Ephraim stumble
in their wickedness.
Judah✭ also stumbles with them.
6 📚They will go with their flocks
and with their herds to seek✭ the LORD,
but they will not find him.
He has withdrawn himself from them.
7 📚✭They have dealt treacherously
against the LORD;
for they have begotten alien children.
Now a New Moon✭ festival
will devour them with their portions.
8 📚✭“Blow the horn in Gibeah,
and the trumpet in Ramah!
Cry out loudly at Beth-Aven✭,
‘Behind you, O Benjamin✭!’
9 📚Ephraim will be desolate
in the day of rebuke.
Among the tribes of Israel
I make known what is sure✭.
10 📚The princes of Judah✭ are like
those who remove boundary
stones, therefore I will
pour out my wrath on them
like water.
11 📚Ephraim is oppressed and
broken in judgment,
because he willingly followed
human orders.
12 📚✭Therefore I will be to Ephraim
like a moth,
and to the house of Judah like rot.
13 📚✭When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah saw his wound,
then Ephraim went to the Assyrian,
and sent a message to King Jareb.
But he could not cure you,
or heal you of your wound.
14 📚✭For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house
of Judah.
I myself will tear them ✭
and go away.
I will take them away,
and no one will rescue then.
15 📚✭I will go away and return
to my place, until✭ they acknowledge
their offense,
and seek my face.
In their affliction they will seek me earnestly”.