Hosea 5

5 ¹ Hear this, priests! Pay attention, house of Israel! Listen, house of the king! For the judgment is meant for you, because you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread out on Tabor.

² The rebels have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them. ³ I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, Ephraim, you have prostituted yourself, and Israel is defiled.

⁴ Their deeds will not let them return to their Father, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know our Father. ⁵ The pride of Israel testifies against him; Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with them. ⁶ With their flocks and their herds they will go to seek our Father, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them. ⁷ They have dealt faithlessly with our Father, for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them along with their fields.

⁸ Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the battle cry at Beth-aven; look behind you, Benjamin! ⁹ Ephraim will 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 those who move a boundary stone; on them I will pour out my wrath like water. ¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was intent on pursuing worthless idols. ¹² So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

¹³ Ephraim saw his own sickness, Judah saw his open sore; so Ephraim ran to Assyria, appealing to its great king. But that king can't cure you, or heal your festering wound. ¹⁴ For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one will rescue. ¹⁵ I will go back again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face; in their distress they will earnestly seek me.