and set their heart on their iniquity.
9 It will be like people, like priest;
and I will punish them for their ways,
and will repay them for their deeds.
10 They will eat, and not have enough.
They will play the prostitute, and will not increase;
because they have abandoned listening to the LORD.
11 Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
12 My people consult with their wooden idol,
and answer to a stick of wood.
Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray,
and they have been unfaithful to their God.
13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains,
and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,
because its shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the prostitute,
and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute,
nor your brides when they commit adultery;
because the men consort with prostitutes,
and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes;
so the people without understanding will come to ruin.
15 “Though you, Israel, play the prostitute,
yet don’t let Judah offend;
and don’t come to Gilgal,
neither go up to Beth Aven,
nor swear, ‘As the LORD lives.’
16 For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer.
Then how will the LORD feed them like a lamb in a meadow?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols.
Leave him alone!
18 Their drink has become sour.
They play the prostitute continually.
Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.
19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings;
and they shall be disappointed because of their sacrifices.
5
1 “Listen to this, you priests!
Listen, house of Israel,
and give ear, house of the king!
For the judgement is against you;
for you have been a snare at Mizpah,
and a net spread on Tabor.
2 The rebels are deep in slaughter,
but I discipline all of them.
3 I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute.
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God,
for the spirit of prostitution is within them,
and they don’t know the LORD.
5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face.
Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity.
Judah also will stumble with them.
6 They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD,
but they won’t find him.
He has withdrawn himself from them.
7 They are unfaithful to the LORD;
for they have borne illegitimate children.
Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.
8 “Blow the cornet in Gibeah,
and the trumpet in Ramah!
Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!
9 Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke.
Amongst the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.
10 The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark.
I will pour out my wrath on them like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed,
he is crushed in judgement,
because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.
12 Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth,
and to the house of Judah like rottenness.
13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went 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 to Ephraim like a lion,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear in pieces and go away.
I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.
15 I will go and return to my place,
until they acknowledge their offence,
and seek my face.
In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.”
6
1 “Come! Let’s return to the LORD;
for he has torn us to pieces,
and he will heal us;
he has injured us,
and he will bind up our wounds.
2 After two days he will revive us.
On the third day he will raise us up,
and we will live before him.
3 Let’s acknowledge the LORD.
Let’s press on to know the LORD.
As surely as the sun rises,
the LORD will appear.
He will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rain that waters the earth.”
4 “Ephraim, what shall I do to you?
Judah, what shall I do to you?
For your love is like a morning cloud,
and like the dew that disappears early.
5 Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets;
I killed them with the words of my mouth.
Your judgements are like a flash of lightning.
6 For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant.
They were unfaithful to me there.
8 Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity;
it is stained with blood.
9 As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man,
so the company of priests murder on the path towards Shechem,
committing shameful crimes.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing.
There is prostitution in Ephraim.
Israel is defiled.
11 “Also, Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you,
when I restore the fortunes of my people.
7
1 When I would heal Israel,
then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,
also the wickedness of Samaria;
for they commit falsehood,
and the thief enters in,
and the gang of robbers ravages outside.
2 They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their own deeds have engulfed them.
They are before my face.
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers.
They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring,
from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine.
He joined his hand with mockers.
6 For they have prepared their heart like an oven,
while they lie in wait.
Their anger smoulders all night.
In the morning it burns as a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven,
and devour their judges.
All their kings have fallen.
There is no one amongst them who calls to me.
8 Ephraim mixes himself amongst the nations.
Ephraim is a pancake not turned over.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength,
and he doesn’t realise it.
Indeed, grey hairs are here and there on him,
and he doesn’t realise it.
10 The pride of Israel testifies to his face;
yet they haven’t returned to the LORD their God,
nor sought him, for all this.
11 “Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding.
They call to Egypt.
They go to Assyria.
12 When they go, I will spread my net on them.
I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.
I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.
13 Woe to them!
For they have wandered from me.
Destruction to them!
For they have trespassed against me.
Though I would redeem them,
yet they have spoken lies against me.
14 They haven’t cried to me with their heart,
but they howl on their beds.
They assemble themselves for grain and new wine.
They turn away from me.
15 Though I have taught and strengthened their arms,
yet they plot evil against me.
16 They return, but not to the Most High.
They are like a faulty bow.
Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue.
This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.
8
1 “Put the trumpet to your lips!
Something like an eagle is over the LORD’s house,
because they have broken my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
2 They cry to me, ‘My God, we, Israel, acknowledge you!’
3 Israel has cast off that which is good.
The enemy will pursue him.
4 They have set up kings, but not by me.
They have made princes, and I didn’t approve.
Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols,
that they may be cut off.
5 Let Samaria throw out his calf idol!
My anger burns against them!
How long will it be until they are capable of purity?
6 For this is even from Israel!
The workman made it, and it is no God;
indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
7 For they sow the wind,
and they will reap the whirlwind.
He has no standing grain.
The stalk will yield no head.
If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up.
Now they are amongst the nations like a worthless thing.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey wandering alone.
Ephraim has hired lovers for himself.
10 But although they sold themselves amongst the nations,
I will now gather them;
and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones.
11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,
they became for him altars for sinning.
12 I wrote for him the many things of my law,
but they were regarded as a strange thing.
13 As for the sacrifices of my offerings,
they sacrifice meat and eat it,
but the LORD doesn’t accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity,
and punish their sins.
They will return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
but I will send a fire on his cities,
and it will devour its fortresses.”
9
1 Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations;
for you were unfaithful to your God.
You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them,
and the new wine will fail her.
3 They won’t dwell in the LORD’s land;
but Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They won’t pour out wine offerings to the LORD,
neither will they be pleasing to him.
Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;
all who eat of it will be polluted;
for their bread will be for their appetite.
It will not come into the LORD’s house.
5 What will you do in the day of solemn assembly,
and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
6 For, behold, when they flee destruction,
Egypt will gather them up.
Memphis will bury them.
Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver.
Thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of visitation have come.
The days of reckoning have come.
Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool,
and the man who is inspired to
