1
Hear this, O ye priests, and hearken, O house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king;
for unto you pertaineth the judgment;
for ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
2
And the revolters are gone deep in making slaughter;
but I am a rebuker of them all.
3
I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me;
for now, O Ephraim, thou hast played the harlot, Israel is defiled.
4
Their doings will not suffer them to turn unto their God;
for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not Jehovah.
5
And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their iniquity;
Judah also shall stumble with them.
6
They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah;
but they shall not find him: he hath withdrawn himself from them.
7
They have dealt treacherously against Jehovah;
for they have borne strange children: now shall the new moon devour them with their fields.
8
Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: sound an alarm at Beth-aven;
behind thee, O Benjamin.
9
Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.
10
The princes of Judah are like them that remove the landmark: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
11
Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment;
because he was content to walk after [man’s] command.
12
Therefore am I unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
13
When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah [saw] his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.
14
For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.
15
I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly.