Hosea 5

Hosea 5

¹“Listen to this, you priests!

Listen, house of Israel,

and give ear, house of the king!

For the judgment is against you;

for you have been a snare at Mizpah,

and a net spread on Tabor.

²The rebels are deep in slaughter;

but I discipline all of them.

³I know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from me;

for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute.

Israel is defiled.

⁴Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God;

for the spirit of prostitution is within them,

and they don’t know Yahweh.

⁵The pride of Israel testifies to his face.

Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity.

Judah also will stumble with them.

⁶They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh;

but they won’t find him.

He has withdrawn himself from them.

⁷They are unfaithful to Yahweh;

for they have borne illegitimate children.

Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

⁸“Blow the cornet in Gibeah,

and the trumpet in Ramah!

Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!

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

Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.

¹⁰The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark.

I will pour out my wrath on them like water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed,

he is crushed in judgment;

Because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.

¹²Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth,

and to the house of Judah like rottenness.

¹³“When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah his wound,

Then Ephraim went to Assyria,

and sent to king Jareb:

but he is not able to heal you,

neither will he cure you of your wound.

¹⁴For I will be to Ephraim like a lion,

and like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I myself will tear in pieces and go away.

I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.

¹⁵I will go and return to my place,

until they acknowledge their offense,

and seek my face.

In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.”