Hosea 5–6

Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah

5^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.

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

but ^aI will discipline all of them.

^3bI know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from me;

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

Israel is defiled.

^4cTheir deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

For ^dthe spirit of whoredom is within them,

and they know not the Lord.

^5eThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;¹

Israel and ^fEphraim shall stumble in his guilt;

^fJudah also shall stumble with them.

^6gWith their flocks and herds they shall go

to seek the Lord,

^gbut they will not find him;

^hhe has withdrawn from them.

⁷ⁱThey have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;

for they have borne alien children.

Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

^8jBlow the horn in ^kGibeah,

the trumpet in ^lRamah.

Sound the alarm at ^mBeth-aven;

we follow you,² O Benjamin!

⁹Ephraim shall become a desolation

in the day of punishment;

among the tribes of Israel

I make known what is sure.

¹⁰The princes of Judah have become

like ⁿthose who move the landmark;

upon them I will pour out

my wrath like water.

¹¹Ephraim is ^ooppressed, crushed in judgment,

because he was determined to go after filth.³

¹²But I am ^plike a moth to Ephraim,

and ^plike dry rot to the house of Judah.

¹³When 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.

¹⁴For 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.

^15wI will return again to my place,

until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,

and ^xin their distress earnestly seek me.

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

6“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.

²After two days ^bhe will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

^3cLet 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.”

⁴What 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.

⁵Therefore 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.

⁶For ^kI desire steadfast love¹ and not sacrifice,

^lthe knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But ^mlike Adam they ⁿtransgressed the covenant;

^othere they dealt faithlessly with me.

^8pGilead is a city of evildoers,

^qtracked with blood.

⁹As robbers ^rlie in wait for a man,

so the priests band together;

they murder on the way to ^sShechem;

they commit villainy.

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

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

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

When ^wI restore the fortunes of my people,