Chapter 4

God’s Controversy with Israel

1 aListen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel,

For the Lord has a bcase against the inhabitants of the land,

Because there is cno 1faithfulness or 2kindness

Or dknowledge of God in the land.

2 There is aswearing, bdeception, cmurder, dstealing and eadultery.

They employ violence, so that fbloodshed 1follows bloodshed.

3 Therefore the land amourns,

And everyone who lives in it languishes

Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky,

And also the fish of the sea 1disappear.

4 Yet let no one 1afind fault, and let none offer reproof;

For your people are like those who bcontend with the priest.

5 So you will astumble by day,

And the prophet also will stumble with you by night;

And I will destroy your bmother.

6 aMy people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you have brejected knowledge,

I also will creject you from being My priest.

Since you have dforgotten the elaw of your God,

I also will forget your children.

7 The more they amultiplied, the more they sinned against Me;

I will bchange their glory into shame.

8 They afeed on the 1sin of My people

And bdirect their desire toward their iniquity.

9 And it will be, like people, alike priest;

So I will bpunish them for their ways

And repay them for their deeds.

10 aThey will eat, but not have enough;

They will bplay the harlot, but not increase,

Because they have 1cstopped giving heed to the Lord.

11 Harlotry, awine and new wine take away the 1understanding.

12 My people aconsult their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand informs them;

For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray,

And they have played the harlot, departing 1from their God.

13 They offer sacrifices on the atops of the mountains

And 1bburn incense on the hills,

cUnder oak, poplar and terebinth,

Because their shade is pleasant.

Therefore your daughters play the harlot

And your 2brides commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot

Or your 1brides when they commit adultery,

For the men themselves go apart with harlots

And offer sacrifices with atemple prostitutes;

So the people without understanding are 2ruined.

15 Though you, Israel, play the harlot,

Do not let Judah become guilty;

Also do not go to aGilgal,

Or go up to Beth-aven

bAnd take the oath:

“As the Lord lives!”

16 Since Israel is astubborn

Like a stubborn heifer,

1Can the Lord now bpasture them

Like a lamb in a large field?

17 Ephraim is joined to aidols;

bLet him alone.

18 Their liquor gone,

They play the harlot continually;

aTheir 1rulers dearly love shame.

19 aThe wind wraps them in its wings,

And they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Chapter 5

The People’s Apostasy Rebuked

1 Hear this, O priests!

Give heed, O house of Israel!

Listen, O house of the king!

For the judgment applies to you,

For you have been a asnare at Mizpah

And a net spread out on Tabor.

2 The arevolters have 1bgone deep in depravity,

But I will chastise all of them.

3 I aknow Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;

For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot,

Israel has defiled itself.

4 Their deeds will not allow them

To return to their God.

For a aspirit of harlotry is within them,

And they bdo not know the Lord.

5 Moreover, the apride of Israel testifies against him,

And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;

bJudah also has stumbled with them.

6 They will ago with their flocks and herds

To seek the Lord, but they will bnot find Him;

He has cwithdrawn from them.

7 They have adealt treacherously against the Lord,

For they have borne 1billegitimate children.

Now the cnew moon will devour them with their 2land.

8 aBlow the horn in bGibeah,

The trumpet in Ramah.

Sound an alarm at Beth-aven:

“cBehind you, Benjamin!”

9 Ephraim will become a adesolation in the bday of rebuke;

Among the tribes of Israel I cdeclare what is sure.

10 The princes of Judah have become like those who amove a boundary;

On them I will bpour out My wrath clike water.

11 Ephraim is aoppressed, crushed in judgment,

bBecause he was determined to 1follow man’s command.

12 Therefore I am like a amoth to Ephraim

And like rottenness to the house of Judah.

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,

And Judah his 1wound,

Then Ephraim went to aAssyria

And sent to 2bKing Jareb.

But he is cunable to heal you,

Or to cure you of your 1wound.

14 For I will be alike a lion to Ephraim

And like a young lion to the house of Judah.

bI, even I, will tear to pieces and go away,

I will carry away, and there will be cnone to deliver.

15 I will go away and return to My place

Until they 1aacknowledge their guilt and seek My face;

In their affliction they will earnestly bseek Me.

Chapter 6

The Response to God’s Rebuke

1 “aCome, let us return to the Lord.

For bHe has torn us, but cHe will heal us;

He has 1wounded us, but He will dbandage us.

2 “He will arevive us after two days;

He will braise us up on the third day,

That we may live before Him.

3 “So let us aknow, let us press on to know the Lord.

His bgoing forth is as certain as the dawn;

And He will come to us like the crain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth.”

4 What shall I do with you, O aEphraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

For your 1loyalty is like a bmorning cloud

And like the dew which goes away early.

5 Therefore I have ahewn them in pieces by the prophets;

I have slain them by the bwords of My mouth;

And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.

6 For aI delight in loyalty brather than sacrifice,

And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7 But alike 1Adam they have btransgressed the covenant;

There they have cdealt treacherously against Me.

8 aGilead is a city of wrongdoers,

Tracked with bbloody footprints.

9 And as araiders wait for a man,

So a band of priests bmurder on the way to Shechem;

Surely they have committed 1ccrime.

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

Ephraim’s bharlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself.

11 Also, O Judah, there is a aharvest appointed for you,

When I brestore the fortunes of My people.

Chapter 7

Ephraim’s Iniquity

1 When I awould heal Israel,

The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,

And the evil deeds of Samaria,

For they deal bfalsely;

The thief enters in,

cBandits raid outside,

2 And they do not 1consider in their hearts

That I aremember all their wickedness.

Now their bdeeds are all around them;

They are before My face.

3 aWith their wickedness they make the bking glad,

And the princes with their clies.

4 They are aall adulterers,

Like an oven heated by the baker

Who ceases to stir up the fire

From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

5 On the 1day of our king, the princes abecame sick with the heat of wine;

He stretched out his hand with bscoffers,

6 For their hearts are like an aoven

As they approach their 1plotting;

Their 2anger 3smolders all night,

In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

7 All of them are hot like an oven,

And they consume their arulers;

All their kings have fallen.

bNone of them calls on Me.

8 Ephraim amixes himself with the 1nations;

Ephraim has become a cake not turned.

9 aStrangers devour his strength,

Yet he bdoes not know it;

Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,

Yet he does not know it.

10 Though the apride of Israel testifies against him,

Yet bthey have not returned to the Lord their God,

Nor have they sought Him, for all this.

11 So aEphraim has become like a silly dove, bwithout 1sense;

They call to cEgypt, they go to dAssyria.

12 When they go, I will aspread My net over them;

I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.

I will bchastise them in accordance with the 1proclamation to their assembly.

13 aWoe to them, for they have bstrayed from Me!

Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!

I cwould redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.

14 And athey do not cry to Me from their heart

When they wail on their beds;

For the sake of grain and new wine they 1bassemble themselves,

They cturn away from Me.

15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms,

Yet they adevise evil against Me.

16 They turn, but not 1upward,

They are like a adeceitful bow;

Their princes will fall by the sword

Because of the 2binsolence of their tongue.

This will be their cderision in the land of Egypt.

Chapter 8

Israel Reaps the Whirlwind

1 aPut the trumpet to your 1lips!

bLike an eagle the enemy comes cagainst the house of the Lord,

Because they have dtransgressed My covenant

And rebelled against My elaw.

2 aThey cry out to Me,

“My God, bwe of Israel know You!”

3 Israel has rejected the good;

The enemy will pursue him.

4 aThey have set up kings, but not by Me;

They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.

With their bsilver and gold they have made idols for themselves,

That 1they might be cut off.

5 1He has rejected your acalf, O Samaria, saying,

“My anger burns against them!”

How long will they be incapable of binnocence?

6 For from Israel is even this!

A acraftsman made it, so it is not God;

Surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to 1pieces.

7 For athey sow the wind

And they reap the bwhirlwind.

The standing grain has no 1heads;

It yields cno 2grain.

Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.

8 Israel is aswallowed up;

They are now among the nations

Like a bvessel in which no one delights.

9 For they have gone up to aAssyria,

Like ba wild donkey all alone;

Ephraim has chired 1lovers.

10 Even though they hire allies among the nations,

Now I will agather them up;

And they will begin bto 1diminish

Because of the burden of the cking of princes.

11 Since Ephraim has amultiplied altars for sin,

They have become altars of sinning for him.

12 Though aI wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My blaw,

They are regarded as a strange thing.

13 As for My asacrificial gifts,

They bsacrifice the flesh and eat it,

But the Lord has taken no delight in them.

Now He will cremember their iniquity,

And dpunish them for their sins;

They will return to eEgypt.

14 For Israel has aforgotten his Maker and bbuilt palaces;

And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,

But I will send a cfire on its cities that it …