⁴ “Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
A spirit of prostitution is in their heart;
they do not acknowledge the Lord.
⁵ Israel’s arrogance testifies against them;
the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin;
Judah also stumbles with them.
⁶ When they go with their flocks and herds
to seek the Lord,
they will not find him;
he has withdrawn himself from them.
⁷ They are unfaithful to the Lord;
they give birth to illegitimate children.
When they celebrate their New Moon feasts,
he will devour their fields.

⁸ “Sound the trumpet in Gibeah,
the horn in Ramah.
Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven;
lead on, Benjamin.
⁹ Ephraim will be laid waste
on the day of reckoning.
Among the tribes of Israel
I proclaim what is certain.
¹⁰ Judah’s leaders are like those
who move boundary stones.
I will pour out my wrath on them
like a flood of water.
¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed,
trampled in judgment,
intent on pursuing idols.
¹² I am like a moth to Ephraim,
like rot to the people of Judah.

¹³ “When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his sores,
then Ephraim turned to Assyria,
and sent to the great king for help.
But he is not able to cure you,
not able to heal your sores.
¹⁴ For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
like a great lion to Judah.
I will tear them to pieces and go away;
I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.
¹⁵ Then I will return to my lair
until they have borne their guilt
and seek my face—
in their misery
they will earnestly seek me.”

⁴ “What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.
⁵ Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
I killed you with the words of my mouth—
then my judgments go forth like the sun.
⁶ For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
⁷ As at Adam, they have broken the covenant;
they were unfaithful to me there.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
stained with footprints of blood.
⁹ As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,
so do bands of priests;
they murder on the road to Shechem,
carrying out their wicked schemes.
¹⁰ I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:
There Ephraim is given to prostitution,
Israel is defiled.

¹¹ “Also for you, Judah,
a harvest is appointed.

“Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

³ “They delight the king with their wickedness,
the princes with their lies.
⁴ They are all adulterers,
burning like an oven
whose fire the baker need not stir
from the kneading of the dough till it rises.
⁵ On the day of the festival of our king
the princes become inflamed with wine,
and he joins hands with the mockers.
⁶ Their hearts are like an oven;
they approach him with intrigue.
Their passion smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are hot as an oven;
they devour their rulers.
All their kings fall,
and none of them calls on me.

⁸ “Ephraim mixes with the nations;
Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over.
⁹ Foreigners sap his strength,
but he does not realize it.
His hair is sprinkled with gray,
but he does not notice.
¹⁰ Israel’s arrogance testifies against him,
but despite all this
he does not return to the Lord his God
or search for him.

¹¹ “Ephraim is like a dove,
easily deceived and senseless—
now calling to Egypt,
now turning to Assyria.
¹² When they go, I will throw my net over them;
I will pull them down like the birds in the sky.
When I hear them flocking together,
I will catch them.
¹³ Woe to them,
because they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them,
because they have rebelled against me!
I long to redeem them
but they speak about me falsely.
¹⁴ They do not cry out to me from their hearts
but wail on their beds.
They slash themselves, appealing to their gods
for grain and new wine,
but they turn away from me.
¹⁵ I trained them and strengthened their arms,
but they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They do not turn to the Most High;
they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of their insolent words.
For this they will be ridiculed
in the land of Egypt.

⁷ “They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up;
now she is among the nations
like something no one wants.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey wandering alone.
Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.
¹⁰ Although they have sold themselves among the nations,
I will now gather them together.
They will begin to waste away
under the oppression of the mighty king.

¹¹ “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
these have become altars for sinning.
¹² I wrote for them the many things of my law,
but they regarded them as something foreign.
¹³ Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,
and though they eat the meat,
the Lord is not pleased with them.
Now he will remember their wickedness
and punish their sins:
They will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ Israel has forgotten their Maker
and built palaces;
Judah has fortified many towns.
But I will send fire on their cities
that will consume their fortresses.”