Hosea

¹ Hear this, priests! Attend, Israelites! Listen, royal family! For you is the judgment: a snare you have become at Mizpeh, and a net spread out on Tabor,

² the rebels are deep in slaughter, but I will discipline all.

³ I know Ephraim, Israel is not hidden from me, for you, Ephraim, have committed prostitution and Israel is defiled.

⁴ Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of prostitution is within them, they do not know the Lord .

⁵ Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, Israel, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin, and Judah also stumbles with them.

⁶ With their sheep and their cattle they will go to seek the Lord but they will not find him, he has withdrawn from them,

⁷ for they have been untrue to the Lord , their children are strangers. Their new moon festivals will soon destroy them and their fields.

⁸ Blow the trumpet in Gibeah, the clarion in Ramah! Raise the alarm in Beth-aven: we are with you, Benjamin!

⁹ Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of punishment, concerning the tribes of Israel I make known what is certain.

¹⁰ The princes of Israel have become like thieves who move boundary stones. On them I will pour out my wrath like a flood.

¹¹ Ephraim will be oppressed, crushed by judgment, for they are determined to go after vanity .

¹² So I am like a moth to Ephraim, like rottenness to the house of Judah.

¹³ For when Ephraim saw their sickness and Israel their wound, Ephraim turned to Assyria, to its patron king. But he cannot heal you nor relieve you of your wound.

¹⁴ For I myself will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, yes I, will rend and go my way, I will carry off and none will rescue. The lack of repentance and reform

¹⁵ I will return to my place, until in remorse they seek my presence. When they are in distress they will quickly seek me,