1 "When I would have healed Israel, Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, And the wickedness of Samaria. For they have committed fraud; A thief comes in; A band of robbers takes spoil outside. |
2 They do not consider in their hearts That I remember all their wickedness; Now their own deeds have surrounded them; They are before My face. |
3 They make a king glad with their wickedness, And princes with their lies. |
4 "They are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by a baker--He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough, Until it is leavened. |
5 In the day of our king Princes have made him sick, inflamed with wine; He stretched out his hand with scoffers. |
6 They prepare their heart like an oven, While they lie in wait; Their baker sleeps all night; In the morning it burns like a flaming fire. |
7 They are all hot, like an oven, And have devoured their judges; All their kings have fallen. None among them calls upon Me. |
8 "Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned. |
9 Aliens have devoured his strength, But he does not know it; Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, Yet he does not know it. |
10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, But they do not return to the LORD their God, Nor seek Him for all this. |
11 "Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense--They call to Egypt, They go to Assyria. |
12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them According to what their congregation has heard. |
13 "Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction to them, Because they have transgressed against Me! Though I redeemed them, Yet they have spoken lies against Me. |
14 They did not cry out to Me with their heart When they wailed upon their beds. "They assemble together for grain and new wine, They rebel against Me; |
15 Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms, Yet they devise evil against Me; |
16 They return, but not to the Most High; They are like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword For the cursings of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. |