Hear ye this, O priests, and hearken, O ye house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king: for there is a judgment against you, because you have been a snare to them whom you should have watched over and a net spread upon Thabor.

²And you have turned aside victims into the depth and I am the teacher of them all.

³I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me for now Ephraim hath committed fornication, Israel is defiled.

⁴They will not set their thoughts to return to their God: for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.

⁵And the pride of Israel shall answer in his face: and Israel, and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity, Juda also shall fall with them.

⁶With their flocks and with their herds, they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall not find him: he is withdrawn from them.

⁷They have transgressed against the Lord: for they have begotten children that are strangers: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

⁸Blow ye the cornet in Gabaa, the trumpet in Rama: howl ye in Bethaven, behind thy back, O Benjamin.

⁹Ephraim shall be in desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel I have shewn that which shall surely be.

¹⁰The princes of Juda are become as they that take up the bound: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

¹¹Ephraim is under oppression, and broken in judgment: because he began to go after filthiness.

¹²And I will be like a moth to Ephraim: and like rottenness to the house of Juda.

¹³And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Juda his band: and Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to the avenging king: and he shall not be able to heal you, neither shall he be able to take off the band from you.

¹⁴For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion’s whelp to the house of Juda: I, I will catch, and go: I will take away, and there is none that can rescue.

¹⁵I will go and return to my place: until you are consumed, and seek my face.

Chapter 6

In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the Lord.

²For he hath taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us.

³He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.

⁴What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.

⁵For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light.

⁶For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts.

⁷But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt treacherously against me.

⁸Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood.

⁹And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out of Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.

¹⁰I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled.

¹¹And thou also, O Juda, set thee a harvest, when I shall bring back the captivity of my people.

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