ሆሴዕ 5

A snare at Mizpah

¹Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, house of Israel! Listen, royal house! \q The judgment is against you, \q for you have been a trap at Mizpah, \q a net spread out on Tabor.^{a 2}The rebels have sunk deep in slaughter, \q but I will discipline them all.^{b 3}I know Ephraim; \q Israel is not hidden from me. \q For now, Ephraim, you have prostituted yourself; \q Israel has become unclean. ⁴Their deeds will not let them return to their God, \q because a spirit of prostitution is in them, \q and they do not know the LORD. ⁵Israel’s pride testifies against him; \q Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their guilt, \q and Judah will stumble with them.^{c 6}With their flocks and their herds they will go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; \q he has withdrawn from them. ⁷They have betrayed the LORD; \q the children they have borne are illegitimate. \q Now the new moon will consume them with their fields.^d

Sound the alarm in Gibeah

⁸Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, \q the trumpet in Ramah! \q Sound the battle cry at Beth-aven: \q “Behind you, Benjamin!”^{e 9}Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of punishment; \q among the tribes of Israel I declare what will surely come. ¹⁰The leaders of Judah have become like those who move boundary stones; \q I will pour out my wrath on them like water. ¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed under judgment, \q because he was determined to follow mere commands.^{f 12}I am like a moth to Ephraim, \q like rot to the house of Judah. ¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, \q Ephraim went to Assyria \q and sent to the great king. \q But he cannot heal you, \q and your wound will not go away.^{g 14}For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, \q like a young lion to the house of Judah. \q I, yes I, will tear them to pieces and go away; \q I will carry them off, and no one will rescue them. ¹⁵I will return to my place \q until they confess their guilt and seek my face. \q In their distress they will search for me eagerly.