Hosea 5

The People’s Apostasy Rebuked

1 Hear this, you priests!

Pay attention, house of Israel!

Listen, you of the house of the king!

For the judgment applies to you,

Because you have been a trap at Mizpah,

And a net spread out on Tabor.

2 And the rebels have gone deep in *5:2 Or slaughterdepravity,

But I will discipline all of them.

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;

Because now, Ephraim, you have been unfaithful,

Israel has defiled itself.

4 Their deeds will not allow them

To return to their God.

For a spirit of *5:4 Or prostitutioninfidelity 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 wrongdoing;

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He has withdrawn from them.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 with the Lord,

For they have given birth to *5:7 Lit strangeillegitimate children.

Now the new moon will devour them with their *5:7 Lit portionsland.

8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,

And 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 make known what is trustworthy.

10 The leaders of Judah have become like those who displace a boundary marker;

On them I will pour out My anger like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed, broken by judgment,

Because he was determined to follow *5:11 Or with some ancient versions, nothingnessman’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 *5:13 Or ulcersore,

Ephraim then went to Assyria

And sent word to *5:13 Or another reading is the great king; or the contentious kingKing Jareb.

But he is unable to heal you,

Or to cure you of your *5:13 Or ulcersore.

14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim

And like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I, yes I, will tear to pieces and go away,

I will carry away, and there will be no one to rescue.

15 I will go away and return to My place

Until they *5:15 Or suffer their punishmentacknowledge their guilt and seek My face;

In their distress they will search for Me.