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;¹

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^hhe has withdrawn from them.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,² 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.³

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.⁴

^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  ^uWhen Israel was a child, ^vI loved him,

and out of Egypt I ^wcalled ^xmy son.

2  ^yThe more they were called,

the more they went away;

^zthey kept sacrificing to the Baals

and burning offerings to idols.

3  Yet it was ^aI who taught Ephraim to walk;

I took them up by their arms,

but they did not know that ^bI healed them.

4  ^cI led them with cords of kindness,¹

with the bands of love,

and ^dI became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,

and ^eI bent down to them and fed them.

5  ^fThey shall not² return to the land of Egypt,

but ^gAssyria shall be their king,

^hbecause ⁱthey have refused to return to me.

6  ^jThe sword shall rage against their cities,

consume the bars of their gates,

and devour them ^kbecause of their own counsels.

7  My people are bent ^lon turning away from me,

and though ^mthey call out to the Most High,

he shall not raise them up at all.

8  How can I give you up, O Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, O Israel?

ⁿHow can I make you ^olike Admah?

How can I treat you ^olike Zeboiim?

^pMy heart recoils within me;

my compassion grows warm and tender.

9  I will not execute my burning anger;

I will not again destroy Ephraim;

^qfor I am God and not a man,

^rthe Holy One in your midst,

and I will not come in wrath.³

10  ^sThey shall go after the Lord;

^the will roar like a lion;

when he roars,

his children shall come trembling ^ufrom the west;

11  they shall come trembling like birds ^vfrom Egypt,

and ^wlike doves ^xfrom the land of Assyria,

and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.