¹“Hear this, cohanim !

Pay attention, house of Isra’el!

Listen, house of the king!

For judgment is coming to you.

You have become a snare for Mitzpah

and a net spread on Tavor.

²The rebels have deepened their slaughter,

and I am rejected by all of them.

³“I know Efrayim;

Isra’el is not hidden from me;

for now, Efrayim, you are a whore;

Isra’el is defiled.”

⁴Their deeds will not allow them

to return to their God,

for the spirit of whoring is in them,

and they don’t know Adonai .

⁵Isra’el’s arrogance will testify in his face;

Isra’el and Efrayim will stumble in their crimes;

Y’hudah too will stumble with them.

⁶With their flocks and herds

they will go in search of Adonai .

But they won’t find him;

he has withdrawn from them.

⁷They have betrayed Adonai ,

by fathering foreign children.

Now within the month the invaders

will devour their lands.

⁸“Blow the shofar in Giv‘ah,

a trumpet at Ramah;

sound an alarm at Beit-Aven:

‘Behind you, Binyamin!’

⁹Efrayim will be laid waste

when the day for punishment comes;

I am announcing to the tribes of Isra’el

what will surely happen.

¹⁰The leaders of Y’hudah are like men

who move boundary stones;

I will pour my fury out

upon them like water.

¹¹Efrayim is oppressed, crushed by the judgment,

because he deliberately sought out futility.

¹²Therefore I am like a moth to Efrayim

and like rottenness to the house of Y’hudah.

¹³When Efrayim saw his sickness

and Y’hudah his wound,

Efrayim went to Ashur

and sent envoys to a warring king;

but he can’t heal you

or cure your wound.

¹⁴For to Efrayim I will be like a lion,

and like a young lion to the house of Y’hudah —

I will tear them up and go away;

I will carry them off, and no one will rescue.

¹⁵I will go and return to my place,

till they admit their guilt and search for me,

seeking me eagerly in their distress.”