Hosea 5–6

Chapter 5

The People’s Apostasy Rebuked

¹Hear 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.

²The ^arevolters have ^1bgone deep in depravity,

But I will chastise all of them.

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

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

Israel has defiled itself.

⁴Their 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.

⁵Moreover, the ^apride of Israel testifies against him,

And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;

^bJudah also has stumbled with them.

⁶They will ^ago with their flocks and herds

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

He has ^cwithdrawn from them.

⁷They have ^adealt treacherously against the Lord,

For they have borne ^1billegitimate children.

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

^8aBlow the horn in ^bGibeah,

The trumpet in Ramah.

Sound an alarm at Beth-aven:

“^cBehind you, Benjamin!”

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

Among the tribes of Israel I ^cdeclare what is sure.

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

On them I will ^bpour out My wrath ^clike water.

¹¹Ephraim is ^aoppressed, crushed in judgment,

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

¹²Therefore I am like a ^amoth to Ephraim

And like rottenness to the house of Judah.

¹³When 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 wound.

¹⁴For 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.

¹⁵I 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.”

⁴What 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.

⁵Therefore 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.

⁶For ^aI delight in loyalty ^brather than sacrifice,

And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But ^alike ¹Adam they have ^btransgressed the covenant;

There they have ^cdealt treacherously against Me.

^8aGilead is a city of wrongdoers,

Tracked with ^bbloody footprints.

⁹And as ^araiders wait for a man,

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

Surely they have committed ^1ccrime.

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

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

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

When I ^brestore the fortunes of My people.