Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah
HOSEA 5 [†] v Hear this, O priests!
Pay attention, O house of Israel!
Give ear, O house of the king!
For the judgment is for you;
for w you have been a snare at Mizpah
and a net spread upon x Tabor.
2[†] And y the revolters z have gone deep into slaughter,
but a I will discipline all of them.
and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;
Israel is defiled.
4[^] c Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For d the spirit of whoredom is within them,
and they know not the LORD.
5[†] e The pride of Israel testifies to his face; [1]
Israel and f Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt;
f Judah also shall stumble with them.
6[†] g With their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the LORD,
g but they will not find him;
h he has withdrawn from them.
7 i They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD;
for they have borne alien children.
Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
8[†] j Blow the horn in k Gibeah,
the trumpet in l Ramah.
Sound the alarm at m Beth-aven;
we follow you, [2] O Benjamin!
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I make known what is sure.
10[†] The princes of Judah have become
like n those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is o oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after filth. [3]
12[†] But I am p like a moth to Ephraim,
and p like dry rot to the house of Judah.
13[†] When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah q his wound,
then Ephraim went r to Assyria,
and sent to the great king. [4]
s But he is not able to cure you
or heal q your wound.
14[^][†] For I will be t like a lion to u Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of u Judah.
v I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
15[†] w I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and x in their distress earnestly seek me.