Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Hearken, O house of the king!
For the judgment pertains to you;
for you have been a snare at Mizpah,
and a net spread upon Tabor.
2 And they have made deep the pit of Shittim;[a]
but I will chastise all of them.
and Israel is not hid from me;
for now, O E′phraim, you have played the harlot,
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For the spirit of harlotry is within them,
and they know not the Lord.
E′phraim [b] shall stumble in his guilt;
Judah also shall stumble with them.
6 With their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;
for they have borne alien children.
Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm at Beth-a′ven;
tremble,[c] O Benjamin!
9 E′phraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I declare what is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become
like those who remove the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11 E′phraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after vanity.[d]
12 Therefore I am like a moth to E′phraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
and Judah his wound,
then E′phraim went to Assyria,
and sent to the great king.[e]
But he is not able to cure you
or heal your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to E′phraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will rend and go away,
I will carry off, and none shall rescue.
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and in their distress they seek me, saying,
Footnotes
- Hosea 5:2 Cn: Heb uncertain
- Hosea 5:5 Heb Israel and Ephraim
- Hosea 5:8 Cn Compare Gk: Heb after you
- Hosea 5:11 Gk: Heb a command
- Hosea 5:13 Cn: Heb a king that will contend