Hosea 5–6

¹‘Hear this, O priests, and attend, O house of Israel, And, O house of the king, give ear, For the judgment is for you, For, a snare ye have been on Mizpah, And a net spread out on Tabor. ²And to slaughter sinners have gone deep, And I am a fetter to them all. ³I have known Ephraim, And Israel hath not been hid from me, For now thou hast gone a-whoring, Ephraim, Defiled is Israel. ⁴They give not up their habitual doings, To turn back unto their God, For a spirit of whoredoms is in their midst, And Jehovah they have not known. ⁵And humbled hath been the excellency of Israel to his face, And Israel and Ephraim stumble by their iniquity, Stumbled also hath Judah with them. ⁶With their flock and with their herd, They go to seek Jehovah, and do not find, He hath withdrawn from them. ⁷Against Jehovah they dealt treacherously, For strange sons they have begotten, Now consume them doth a month with their portions.

⁸Blow ye a cornet in Gibeah, a trumpet in Ramah, Shout, O Beth-Aven, after thee, O Benjamin. ⁹Ephraim is for a desolation in a day of reproof, Among the tribes of Israel I have made known a sure thing. ¹⁰Princes of Judah have been as those removing a border, On them I do pour out as water My wrath. ¹¹Oppressed is Ephraim, broken in judgment, When he pleased he went after the command. ¹²And I am as a moth to Ephraim, And as a rotten thing to the house of Judah. ¹³And see doth Ephraim his sickness, and Judah his wound, And Ephraim goeth unto Asshur, And sendeth unto a warlike king, And he is not able to give healing to you, Nor doth he remove from you a scar. ¹⁴For I am as a lion to Ephraim, And as a young lion to the house of Judah, I—I tear and go, I bear away, and there is no deliverer. ¹⁵I go—I turn back unto My place, Till that they are desolate, and have sought My face. In their distress they do seek Me speedily!’

Chapter 6

¹‘Come, and we turn back unto Jehovah, For He hath torn, and He doth heal us, He doth smite, and He bindeth us up. ²He doth revive us after two days, In the third day He doth raise us up, And we live before Him. ³And we know—we pursue to know Jehovah, As the dawn prepared is His going forth, And He cometh in as a shower to us, As gathered rain—sprinkling earth.’

⁴What do I do to thee, O Ephraim? What do I do to thee, O Judah? Your goodness is as a cloud of the morning, And as dew rising early—going. ⁵Therefore I have hewed by prophets, I have slain them by sayings of My mouth, And My judgments to the light goeth forth. ⁶For kindness I desired, and not sacrifice, And a knowledge of God above burnt-offerings. ⁷And they, as Adam, transgressed a covenant, There they dealt treacherously against me. ⁸Gilead is a city of workers of iniquity, Slippery from blood. ⁹And as bands do wait for a man, A company of priests do murder—the way to Shechem, For wickedness they have done. ¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing, There is the whoredom of Ephraim—defiled is Israel. ¹¹Also, O Judah, appointed is a harvest to thee, In My turning back to the captivity of My people!

Chapter 7