1  ^kHear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,

for ^lthe Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,

and ^mno knowledge of God in the land;

2  ⁿthere is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;

they break all bounds, and ^obloodshed follows bloodshed.

3  Therefore ^pthe land mourns,

and all who dwell in it languish,

^qand also the beasts of the field

and the birds of the heavens,

^rand even the fish of the sea are taken away.

4  ^sYet let no one contend,

and let none accuse,

for with you is ^tmy contention, O priest.¹

5  You shall stumble by day;

the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;

and I will destroy ^uyour mother.

6  My people are destroyed ^vfor lack of knowledge;

^wbecause you have rejected knowledge,

I reject you ^xfrom being a priest to me.

And since you have forgotten the law of your God,

^yI also will forget your children.

7  ^zThe more they increased,

the more they sinned against me;

^aI will change their glory into shame.

8  ^bThey feed on the sin² of my people;

they are greedy for their iniquity.

9  ^cAnd it shall be like people, like priest;

I will punish them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

10  ^dThey shall eat, but not be satisfied;

they shall play the whore, but not multiply,

because they have forsaken the Lord

to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,

which ^etake away the understanding.

12  My people ^finquire of a piece of wood,

and their walking staff gives them oracles.

For ^ga spirit of whoredom has led them astray,

and they have left their God to play the whore.

13  ^hThey sacrifice on the tops of the mountains

and burn offerings on the hills,

ⁱunder oak, poplar, and terebinth,

because their shade is good.

Therefore your daughters play the whore,

and your brides commit adultery.

14  I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,

nor your brides when they commit adultery;

for ^jthe men themselves go aside with prostitutes

and sacrifice with ^kcult prostitutes,

and a people ^lwithout understanding shall come to ruin.

15  Though you play the whore, O ^mIsrael,

let not ^mJudah become guilty.

ⁿEnter not into ^oGilgal,

nor go up to ^pBeth-aven,

and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”

16  Like a stubborn heifer,

Israel is stubborn;

can the Lord now feed them

like a lamb in a broad pasture?

17  ^qEphraim is joined to idols;

^rleave him alone.

18  When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;

^stheir rulers³ dearly love shame.

19  ^tA wind has wrapped them⁴ in its wings,

and they shall ^ube ashamed because of their sacrifices.

1  ^vHear this, O priests!

Pay attention, O house of Israel!

Give ear, O house of the king!

For the judgment is for you;

for ^wyou have been a snare at Mizpah

and a net spread upon ^xTabor.

2  And ^ythe revolters ^zhave gone deep into slaughter,

but ^aI will discipline all of them.

3  ^bI know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from me;

for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;

Israel is defiled.

4  ^cTheir deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

For ^dthe spirit of whoredom is within them,

and they know not the Lord.

5  ^eThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;⁵

Israel and ^fEphraim shall stumble in his guilt;

^fJudah also shall stumble with them.

6  ^gWith their flocks and herds they shall go

to seek the Lord,

^gbut they will not find him;

^hhe has withdrawn from them.

7  ⁱThey have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;

for they have borne alien children.

Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

8  ^jBlow the horn in ^kGibeah,

the trumpet in ^lRamah.

Sound the alarm at ^mBeth-aven;

we follow you,⁶ O Benjamin!

9  Ephraim shall become a desolation

in the day of punishment;

among the tribes of Israel

I make known what is sure.

10  The princes of Judah have become

like ⁿthose who move the landmark;

upon them I will pour out

my wrath like water.

11  Ephraim is ^ooppressed, crushed in judgment,

because he was determined to go after filth.⁷

12  But I am ^plike a moth to Ephraim,

and ^plike dry rot to the house of Judah.

13  When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah ^qhis wound,

then Ephraim went ^rto Assyria,

and sent to the great king.⁸

^sBut he is not able to cure you

or heal ^qyour wound.

14  For I will be ^tlike a lion to ^uEphraim,

and like a young lion to the house of ^uJudah.

^vI, even I, will tear and go away;

I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

15  ^wI will return again to my place,

until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,

and ^xin their distress earnestly seek me.

1  “Come, let us ^yreturn to the Lord;

for ^zhe has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and ^ahe will bind us up.

2  After two days ^bhe will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

3  ^cLet us know; ^clet us press on to know the Lord;

^dhis going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us ^eas the showers,

^fas the spring rains that water the earth.”

4  What shall I do with you, ^gO ^hEphraim?

What shall I do with you, O ^hJudah?

Your love is ⁱlike a morning cloud,

ⁱlike the dew that goes early away.

5  Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have slain them ^jby the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

6  For ^kI desire steadfast love⁹ and not sacrifice,

^lthe knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7  But ^mlike Adam they ⁿtransgressed the covenant;

^othere they dealt faithlessly with me.

8  ^pGilead is a city of evildoers,

^qtracked with blood.

9  As robbers ^rlie in wait for a man,

so the priests band together;

they murder on the way to ^sShechem;

they commit villainy.

10  In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;

^tEphraim’s whoredom is there; ^uIsrael is defiled.

11  For you also, O ^uJudah, ^va harvest is appointed.

When ^wI restore the fortunes of my people,

1  Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?²

Do you judge the children of man uprightly?

2  No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;

your hands ^jdeal out violence on earth.

3  The wicked are ^kestranged from the womb;

they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

4  ^lThey have venom like the venom of a serpent,

like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

5  so that it ^mdoes not hear the voice of charmers

or of the cunning enchanter.

6  O God, ⁿbreak the teeth in their mouths;

tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!

7  Let them ^ovanish like water that runs away;

when he ^paims his arrows, let them be blunted.

8  Let them be like the snail ^othat dissolves into slime,

like ^qthe stillborn child who never sees the sun.

9  Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of ^rthorns,

whether green or ablaze, may he ^ssweep them away!³

10  ^tThe righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;

he will ^ubathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.

11  Mankind will say, “Surely there is ^va reward for the righteous;

surely there is a God who ^wjudges on earth.”