Then you shall be devoted to the LORD.
23In that day,
I will respond
—declares the LORD—
I will respond to the sky,
And it shall respond to the earth;
24And the earth shall respond
With new grain and wine and oil,
And they shall respond to Jezreel.m
25I will sow her in the land as My own;
And take Lo-ruhamah back in favor;
And I will say to Lo-ammi, “You are My people,”
And he will respond, “[You are] my God.”
3 The LORD said to me further, “Go, a- befriend a woman who, while befriended by a companion, consorts with others, just as the LORD befriends the Israelites,-a but they turn b- to other gods and love the cups of the grape.”-b
2Then I hired her for fifteen [shekels of] silver, a homer of barley, and c- a lethech of barley; -c 3and I stipulated with her, d-“In return, -b you are to go a long time without either fornicating or marrying; even I [shall not cohabit] with you.”
4For the Israelites shall go a long time without king and without officials, without sacrifice e and without cult pillars, and without ephod and teraphim. 5Afterward, the Israelites will turn back and will seek the LORD their God and David their king—and they will thrill over the LORD and over His bounty in the days to come.
4
Hear the word of the LORD,
O people of Israel!
For the LORD has a case
Against the inhabitants of this land,
Because there is no honesty and no goodness
And no obedience to God in the land.
2[False] swearing, dishonesty, and murder,
And theft and adultery are rife;
Crime follows upon crime!
3For that, the earth is withered:
Everything that dwells on it languishes—
Beasts of the field and birds of the sky—
Even the fish of the sea perish.
4“Let no man rebuke, let no man protest!”
a-
For this your people has a grievance against [you], O priest! -a
5So you shall stumble by day,
And by night b- a prophet -b shall stumble as well,
And I will destroy your kindred. c
6My people is destroyed because of [your] disobedience!
Because you have rejected obedience,
I reject you as My priest;
Because you have spurned the teaching of your God,
I, in turn, will spurn your children.
7The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me:
I will change their dignity to dishonor.
8They feed on My people’s sin offerings,
And so they desire its iniquity.
9Therefore, the people shall fare like the priests:
I will punish it for its conduct,
I will requite it for its deeds.
10Truly, they shall eat, but not be sated;
They shall swill,d but not be satisfied,
Because they have forsaken the LORD
To practicee
11 lechery.
Winef and new wine destroy
The mind of
12 My people:
It consults its stick,g
Its rodg directs it!
A lecherous impulse has made them go wrong,
And they have strayedh from submission to their God.
13They sacrifice on the mountaintops
And offer on the hills,
Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths
Whose shade is so pleasant.
That is why theiridaughters fornicate
And their daughters-in-law commit adultery!
14I will not punish their daughters for fornicating
Nor their daughters-in-law for committing adultery;
For they themselves j-turn aside-j with whores
And sacrifice with prostitutes,
And a people that is without sensek must stumble.
15If you are a lecher, Israel—
Let not Judah incur guilt—
Do not come to Gilgal,l
Do not make pilgrimages to Beth-aven,m
And do not swear by the LORD!n
16Ah, Israel has balked
Like a stubborn cow;
Therefore,
The LORD will graze him
On the range, like a sheep.o
17pEphraim is addicted to images—
Let him be.
18They drink to excess—
Their liquor turns against them.
They “love” beyond measure—
Disgrace is the “gift”
19Which the wind q-is bringing;-q
They shall garner shame from their sacrifices.
5
Hear this, O priests,
Attend, O Housea of Israel,
And give ear, O royal house;
For right conduct is your responsibility!
But you have been a snare to Mizpah
And a net spread out over Tabor;
2b-For when trappers dug deep pitfalls,
I was the only reprover of them all.-b
3Yes, I have watched Ephraim,
Israel has not escaped my notice:
Behold, you have fornicated, O Ephraim;
Israel has defiled himself!
4Their habits do not let them
Turn back to their God;
Because of the lecherous impulse within them,
They pay no heed to the LORD.
5c-Israel’s pride shall be humbled before his very eyes,
As Israel and Ephraim fall because of their sin
(And Judah falls with them).
6Then they will go with their sheep and cattle
To seek the LORD, but they will not find Him.-c
b-
e has cast them off:-b
7[Because] they have broken faith with the LORD,
Because d-they have-d begotten
Alien children.
Therefore, b-the new moon
Shall devour their portion.-b
8Sound a ram’s horn in Gibeah,
A trumpet in Ramah;
Give the alarm in Beth-aven;e
f-
After you,-f Benjamin!
9Ephraim is stricken with horror
On a day of chastisement.
Against the tribesg of Israel
I proclaim certainties:
10The officers of Judah have acted
Like shifters of field boundaries;
On them I will pour out
My wrath like water.
11Ephraim is defrauded,
Robbed of redress,
Because he has witlessly
Gone after futility.h
12For it is I who am like rot to Ephraim,
Like decay to the House of Judah;i
13Yet when Ephraim became aware of his sickness,
Judahi of his sores,
Ephraim repaired to Assyria—
He sent envoys to a patronj king!
He will never be able to cure you,
Will not heal you of your sores.
14No, I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
Like a great beast to the House of Judah;i
I, I will attack and stride away,
Carrying the prey that no one can rescue;
15And I will return to My abode—
Till they realize their guilt.
In their distress, they will seek Me
And beg for My favor.
6
a“Come, let us turn back to the LORD:
He attacked, and He can heal us;
He wounded, and He can bind us up.
2In two days He will make us whole again;
On the third day He will raise us up,
And we shall be whole by His favor.
3Let us pursue obedience to the LORD,
And we shall become obedient.
His appearance is as sure as daybreak,
And He will come to us like rain,
Like latter rain that refreshesb the earth.”
4What can I do for you, Ephraim,
What can I do for you, Judah,c
When your goodness is like morning clouds,
Like dew so early gone?
5That is why I have hewn down d-the prophets,-d
Have slain them with the words of My mouth:
e-
And the day that dawned [brought on] your punishment.-e
6For I desire goodness, not sacrifice;
Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings.
7fBut they, to a man, have transgressed the Covenant.
This is where they have been false to Me:
8Gilead is a city of evildoers,
Tracked up with blood.
9The gang of priests is
Like the ambuscade of bandits
Who murder on the road to Shechem,
For they have encouragedg depravity.
10In h-the House of Israel-h I have seen
A horrible thing;
Ephraim has fornicated there,
Israel has defiled himself.
11i-(Even Judah has reaped a harvest of you!)-i
7
When I would restore My people’s fortunes,
1When I would heal Israel,
The guilt of Ephraim reveals itself
And the wickedness of Samaria.
For they have acted treacherously,
With thieves breaking in
And bands raiding outside.
2And they do not consider
That I remembered all their wickedness.
Why, their misdeeds have been all around them,a
They have been ever before Me.
3bIn malice they make a king merry,
And officials in treachery.
4They c-commit adultery,-c all of them.
Like an oven fired by a baker,
Who desists from stoking only
From the kneading of the dough to its leavening.
5The day they made our king sick
[And] officials with the poison of wine,
d-
He gave his hand to traitors.-d
6e-For they approach their ambush
With their hearts like an oven:-e
Through the night
Their bakerc has slept;
In the morning, it flares up
Like a blazing fire.
7They all get heated like an oven
And devour their rulers—
None of them calls to Me.
All their kings have fallen [by their hand].
8e-Ephraim is among the peoples;
He is rotting away.
Ephraim is like a cake—
Incapable of turning.-e
9Strangers have consumed his strength,
But he has taken no notice;
Also, moldf is scattered over him,
But he has taken no notice.
10Though Israel’s pride has been humbled
Before his very eyes,
They have not turned back
To their God the LORD;
They have not sought Him
In spite of everything.
11Instead, Ephraim has acted
Like a silly dove with no mind:
They have appealed to Egypt!
They have gone to Assyria!
12When they go, I will spread
My net over them,
I will bring them down
Like birds of the sky;
e-
I will chastise them
When I hear their bargaining.-e
13Woe to them
For straying from Me;
Destruction to them
For rebelling against Me!
For I was their Redeemer;
Yet they have plotted treason against Me.
14gBut they did not cry out to Me sincerely
As theyh-lay wailing.-h
They debauchi over new grain and new wine,
They are faithlessj to Me.
15I braced, I strengthened their arms,
And they plot evil against Me!
16They come back;
They have been of no use,e
Like a slack bow.
Their officers shall fall by the sword,
Because of the stammeringk of their tongues.
Such shall be [the results of] their jabberingl
In the land of Egypt.
8
[Put] a ram’s horn to your mouth—
a-
Like an eagle-a over the House of b-the LORD;-b
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And been faithless to My teaching.
2Israel cries out to Me,
“O my God, we are devoted to You.”c
3Israel rejects what is good;
d-
An enemy shall pursue him.-d
4They have made kings,
But not with My sanction;
They have made officers,
But not of My choice.
Of their silver and gold
They have made themselves images,
To their own undoing.
5e-He rejects-e your calf, Samaria!
I am furious with them!
Will they never be capable of f-purity?
6For it was Israel’s doing;-f
It was only made by a joiner,
It is not a god.
No, the calf of Samaria shall be
Reduced to splinters!
7They sow wind,
And they shall reap whirlwind—
Standing stalks devoid of ears
And yielding no flour.
If they do yield any,
Strangers shall devour it.
8Israel is bewildered;g
They have now become among the nations
Like an unwanted vessel,
9[Like] a lonely wild ass.
For they have gone up to Assyria,
h-
Ephraim has-h courted friendship.
10And while they are courting among the nations,
-i
There I will hold them fast;-i a-And they shall begin to diminish in number
From the burden of king [and] officers.a-
11For Ephraim has multiplied altars—for guilt;
His altars have redounded to his guilt:
12The many teachings I wrote for him
Have been treated as something alien.
13a-When they present sacrifices to Me,-a
It is but flesh for them to eat:
The LORD has not accepted them.
Behold, He remembers their iniquity,
He will punish their sins:
Back to Egypt with them!
14Israel has ignored his Maker
And built temples
(And Judah
