Hosea 5
1 Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, house of Israel! Listen, members of the royal family!
Hear this, priests, and pay attention, house of Israel, and listen closely, house of the king. For there is a judgment against you, because you have become a trap for those you watched over, and a net stretched out over Tabor.
2 Judgment belongs with you because you have been a snare set at Mizpah and a net spread out on Tabor. You dug a deep trap in Shittim, but I will punish you for all these things you have done.
And you have led astray victims into the depths, though I am the teacher of them all.
3 I know Ephraim very well, and Israel cannot hide from me, for now Ephraim is a prostitute and Israel is defiled.
I know Ephraim, and Israel has not been hidden from me, yet now Ephraim has committed fornication, and Israel has been contaminated.
4 Your actions stop you from coming back to your God for a spirit of prostitution is within you and you do not know the Lord.
They will not set their thoughts to return to their God, for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.
5 Israel's pride speaks against them, right in the face. Israel and Ephraim will stumble because of their guilt, and Judah will stumble along with them.
And the arrogance of Israel will answer to his face. And Israel and Ephraim will fall in their iniquity, and even Judah will fall with them.
6 They will go to seek the Lord with their herds and flocks, but they will not find him, for he has given up on them.
With their flocks and their herds, they will go to seek the Lord, and they will not find him. He has taken himself away from them.
7 They have been unfaithful to the Lord and have had children that are not his. Now the New Moon will destroy them along with their fields.
They have sinned against the Lord. For they have conceived sons that are strangers. Now one month will devour them with all their own.
8 Blow the horn in Gibeah! Sound the trumpet in Ramah! Shout an alarm in Beth-aven! Lead the way, Benjamin!
Sound the bugle in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Shout in Bethaven, behind your back, O Benjamin.
9 Ephraim will be left desolate on the day of punishment. Among the tribes of Israel I will reveal what is the real truth.
Ephraim will be in desolation on the day of correction, for within the tribes of Israel, I have revealed faith.
10 The rulers of Judah have become thieves like those who illegally move boundaries. I will pour out my anger like water upon them.
The leaders of Judah have become like those who assume the end. I will pour my wrath over them like water.
11 The people of Ephraim are crushed, smashed to pieces in judgment because they were determined to follow human commands.
Ephraim has been enduring malicious slander and broken judgment, because he began to go after filth.
12 I am like a maggot to Ephraim, and like something rotten to the people of Judah.
And I will be like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw how sick they were, and Judah saw how wounded they were, Ephraim turned to the great king of Assyria for help, but he could not heal them or cure their wounds.
And Ephraim saw his own weakness, and Judah his chains. And Ephraim went to Assur, and he sent to the Avenging king. But he will not be able to heal you, nor is he able to release you from your chains.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a fierce lion to the people of Judah. I will come and tear them to pieces, and carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them.
For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion’s offspring to the house of Judah. I myself will seize and go forth. I will take away, and there is no one who can rescue.
15 Then I will leave and return to where I came from until they acknowledge their wrongs, and in their distress they will seek my face and beg for my help.”
I will go and return to my place, until you shall grow faint and seek my face.
