Hosea
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Hosea 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 snare at Mizpah
And a net spread out on Tabor.
2 The revolters have [a]gone deep in depravity,
But I will chastise all of them.
3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;
For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot,
Israel has defiled itself.
4 Their deeds will not allow them
To return to their God.
For a spirit of harlotry is within them,
And they do not know the Lord.
5 Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him,
And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;
Judah also has stumbled with them.
6 They will go with their flocks and herds
To seek the Lord, but they will not find Him;
He has withdrawn from them.
7 They have dealt treacherously against the Lord,
For they have borne [b]illegitimate children.
Now the new moon will devour them with their [c]land.

8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,
The trumpet in Ramah.
Sound an alarm at Beth-aven:
“Behind you, Benjamin!”
9 Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke;
Among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary;
On them I will pour out My wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
Because he was determined to [d]follow man’s command.
12 Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim
And like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,
And Judah his [e]wound,
Then Ephraim went to Assyria
And sent to [f]King Jareb.
But he is unable to heal you,
Or to cure you of your [g]wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim
And like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away,
I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver.
15 I will go away and return to My place
Until they [h]acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 5:2 Or waded deep in slaughter
  2. Hosea 5:7 Lit strange
  3. Hosea 5:7 Lit portions
  4. Hosea 5:11 Or with some ancient versions, follow nothingness
  5. Hosea 5:13 Or ulcer
  6. Hosea 5:13 Or the avenging king or the great king
  7. Hosea 5:13 Or ulcer
  8. Hosea 5:15 Or bear their punishment
Hosea 5