Hosea 5–6

Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah

⁵Hear this, O priests!

Give heed, O house of Israel!

Listen, O house of the king!

For the judgment pertains to you,

for you have been a snare at Mizpah

and a net spread upon Tabor^*

²and a pit dug deep in Shittim,^x

but I will punish all of them.

³I know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from me,

for now, O Ephraim, you have prostituted yourself;

Israel is defiled.^*

⁴Their deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

For the spirit of prostitution is within them,

and they do not know the Lord.^*

⁵Israel’s pride testifies against him;

Ephraim^y stumbles in his guilt;

Judah also stumbles with them.^*

⁶With their flocks and herds they shall go

to seek the Lord,

but they will not find him;

he has withdrawn from them.^*

⁷They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord,

for they have borne illegitimate children.

Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields.^*

⁸Blow the horn in Gibeah,

the trumpet in Ramah.

Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;

look behind you, Benjamin!^*

⁹Ephraim shall become a desolation

in the day of punishment;

among the tribes of Israel

I declare what is sure.^*

¹⁰The princes of Judah have become

like those who remove the landmark;

on them I will pour out

my wrath like water.^*

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,

because he was determined to go after vanity.^z

¹²Therefore I am like maggots to Ephraim

and like rottenness to the house of Judah.^*

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness

and Judah his wound,

then Ephraim went to Assyria

and sent to the great king.^a

But he is not able to cure you

or heal your wound.^*

¹⁴For I will be like a lion to Ephraim

and like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I myself will tear and go away;

I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.^*

¹⁵I will return again to my place

until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.

In their distress they will beg my favor:^*

A Call to Repentance

⁶“Come, let us return to the Lord,

for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;

he has struck down, and he will bind us up.^*

²After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

³Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;

his appearing is as sure as the dawn;

he will come to us like the showers,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”^*

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

⁴What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes away early.^*

⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have killed them by the words of my mouth,

and my^b judgment goes forth as the light.^*

⁶For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.^*

⁷But at^c Adam they transgressed the covenant;

there they dealt faithlessly with me.

⁸Gilead is a city of evildoers,

tracked with blood.

⁹As robbers lie in wait^d for someone,

so the priests are banded together;^e

they murder on the road to Shechem;

they commit a monstrous crime.^*

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

Ephraim’s prostitution is there; Israel is defiled.^*

¹¹For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.

When I would restore the fortunes of my people,^*