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.