The People’s Apostasy Rebuked

¹Hear this and pay close attention, O priests!

Give heed, O house of Israel!

Listen, O house of the king!

For the [pronounced] judgment pertains to you and is meant for you to hear,

Because you have been a snare at Mizpah

And a net spread out over Tabor (military strongholds on either side of the Jordan River).

²The revolters have gone deep into depravity,

But I [the Lord God] will chastise them all.

³I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;

For now, O Ephraim, you have played the prostitute and have worshiped idols;

Israel has defiled itself.

⁴Their [immoral] practices will not permit them

To return to their God,

For the spirit of prostitution is within them

And they do not know the Lord [they do not recognize, appreciate, heed or cherish Him].

⁵But the pride and self-reliance of Israel testifies against him.

Therefore Israel, and [especially] Ephraim, stumble and fall in their wickedness and guilt;

Judah also has stumbled with them.

⁶They will go with their flocks and with their herds

To seek the Lord [diligently searching for Him], but they will not find Him;

He has withdrawn from them [refusing to hear the prayers of the unrepentant].

⁷They have dealt treacherously against the Lord ,

For they have borne illegitimate (pagan) children.

Now the New Moon will devour them along with their land [bringing judgment and captivity].

⁸¶Blow the horn in Gibeah,

The trumpet in Ramah [the lofty hills on Benjamin’s northern border].

Sound the alarm at Beth-aven:

“Behind you and coming after you [is the enemy], O Benjamin [be on guard]!”

⁹Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke;

Among the tribes of Israel I declare what is certain.

¹⁰The princes of Judah are like those who move a boundary marker;[#5:10 I.e. like an official changing the laws of what is right and what is wrong by changing the legal standards.]

I will pour out My wrath on them like [an unrestrained flood of] water. [Deut 19:14; Prov 22:28]

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed; he is broken and crushed by [divine] judgment,

Because he was determined to follow man’s command (vanities, filth, secular precepts).

¹²Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim

And like dry rot to the house of Judah [in My judgment against them].

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness,

And Judah his wound,

Then Ephraim went to Assyria [instead of the Lord ]

And sent to [Assyria’s] great King Jareb [for help].

But he cannot heal you

Nor will he cure you of your wound [received in judgment].

¹⁴For I will be like a lion to Ephraim

And like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I, even I, will tear to pieces and go on [tearing];

I will carry off [the prey] and there will be no one to rescue them .

¹⁵I will go away and return to My place [on high]

Until they acknowledge their offense and bear their guilt and seek My face;

In their distress they will earnestly seek Me, saying,