Hosea 5

¹ Listen to this, priests, attend, House of Israel, listen, royal household, you who are responsible for justice, for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net outspread on Tabor.

² They are entrenched in their deceitfulness and so I am going to punish them all.

³ I know all about Ephraim, Israel has no secrets for me; yes Ephraim, you have played the whore, Israel has defiled himself.

⁴ Their deeds do not allow them to return to their God, since a prostituting spirit possesses them; they do not know Yahweh.

⁵ The arrogance of Israelis his own accuser, the iniquity of Ephraim knocks him down, and down comes Judah with him.

⁶ Though they go in search of Yahweh with their sheep and oxen, they do not find him; for he has withdrawn from them.

⁷ They have proved unfaithful to Yahweh, they have fathered bastards, and now the destroyer will devour them, them and their estates.

⁸ Sound the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah, give the alarm at Beth-aven, call Benjamin to arms!

⁹ Ephraim shall be laid waste when the day comes for punishment; I pronounce certain doom for the tribes of Israel[*a].

¹⁰ The leaders of Judah are like men who displace the boundary mark; I mean to pour my anger out on them in a flood.

¹¹ Ephraim is an oppressor, he tramples on justice, so set is he on his pursuit of nothingness.

¹² Very well, I myself will be the moth of Ephraim, the canker of the House of Judah.

¹³ Ephraim has seen how sick he is and Judah the extent of his wound, so Ephraim has turned to Assyria, Judah has appealed to the Great King[*b]; but he has no power to cure you nor to heal your wound.

¹⁴ For I mean to be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the House of Judah; I, yes I, will tear to pieces, then go my way, I will carry off my prey, and no one can snatch it from me.

¹⁵ Yes, I am going to return to my dwelling place until they confess their guilt and seek my face; they will search for me in their misery.