1 when I heal Israel, l
the iniquity of Ephraim m and the crimes of Samaria n
will be exposed.
For they practice fraud; o
a thief breaks in;
a raiding party pillages outside. p
2 But they never consider that I remember all their evil. q
Now their actions are all around them; r
they are right in front of my face.
Israel’s Corruption
3 They please the king with their evil, s
the princes with their lies. t
4 All of them commit adultery; u
they are like an oven heated by a baker
who stops stirring the fire
from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king,
the princes are sick with the heat of wine v—
there is a conspiracy with traitors.
6 For they—their hearts like an oven—
draw him into their oven.
Their anger smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are as hot as an oven, w
and they consume their rulers. x
All their kings fall;
not one of them calls on me.
8 Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations.
Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle.
9 Foreigners consume his strength, y
but he does not notice. z
Even his hair is streaked with gray,
but he does not notice.
10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, ,a
yet they do not return to the LORD their God, b
and for all this, they do not seek him.
11 So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove; c
they call to Egypt, d and they go to Assyria. e
12 As they are going, I will spread my net over them; f
I will bring them down like birds of the sky.
I will discipline them in accordance
with the news that reaches their assembly.
The LORD’S Second Lament
13 Woe to them, g for they fled from me; h
destruction to them, for they rebelled against me!
Though I want to redeem them, i
they speak lies against me.
14 They do not cry to me from their hearts;
rather, they wail on their beds.
They slash themselves ,j for grain and new wine; k
they turn away from me.
15 I trained and strengthened their arms, l
but they plot evil against me. m
16 They turn, but not to what is above;
they are like a faulty bow. n
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of their insolent tongue. o
They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt. p
7:3–7. Third, the kings and princes of Israel plot and scheme by deceit to overthrow one another (cf. 2 Kg 15). At one point they will appear to be a friend, and in the next moment they are ready to get involved with plots to assassinate the king. They are politically unfaithful (thus adulterers) and liars; like an oven, they get hot with passion and drunk with wine (7:4–6). So at a time when the king is supposed to be honored and people are supposed to be enjoying a festival, they join evil companions in talk about how to overthrow the reigning king. While all this is happening, no one ever bothers to consult God to see what his will is on these very important matters (7:7).
7:8–12. Fourth, instead of trusting God to protect them and defeat their enemies, Israel makes military alliances (7:8). These foreign alliances sap the strength of the nation, for such arrangements require tribute, a reduction in freedom, and many moral compromises. Although people may not realize the danger of these political arrangements at first, just like the slow process of the graying of a person’s hair (7:9), these alliances will gradually undermine the integrity and purity of the nation of Israel. Unfortunately the arrogance of the leaders will not allow them to admit their mistakes and turn back to trusting God; instead, they senselessly act like an indecisive dove by making alliances with one nation (Egypt) after another (Assyria) (7:10–11). God will soon stop this silly dove’s behavior by capturing it (7:12).
7:13–16. Finally, God laments the coming destruction of his people, who have strayed from giving their love to God (7:13). God laments because he has done everything he can (he trained them, made them strong, and redeemed them) to get these people to maintain their covenant faithfulness to him, but they have repeatedly rebelled, spoken lies about God, ignored God, and refused to depend on him (7:14–15). It seems like they are plotting against God, trying their best to undermine everything he wants them to do. If they continue in this way and do not turn upward to call on God, they will end up being destroyed in war, their kings will be killed, and other nations (like Egypt) will ridicule them for their political blunders (7:16).