1 Hear this, O ye priests, and attend, ye house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king, for unto you pertaineth the judgment; for ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
2 And they that fall away are gone deep in making slaughter; and I am rejected of them all.
3 I, even I, know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from Me; for now, O Ephraim, thou hast committed harlotry, Israel is defiled.
4 Their doings will not suffer them to return unto their God; for the spirit of harlotry is within them, and they know not the LORD.
5 But the pride of Israel shall testify to his face; and Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their iniquity, Judah also shall stumble with them.
6 With their flocks and with their herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they shall not find Him; He hath withdrawn Himself from them.
7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD, for they have begotten strange children; now shall the new moon devour them with their portions. {S}8 Blow ye the horn in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah; sound an alarm at Beth-aven: 'Behind thee, O Benjamin!'
9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel do I make known that which shall surely be.
10 The princes of Judah are like them that remove the landmark; I will pour out My wrath upon them like water.
11 Oppressed is Ephraim, crushed in his right; because he willingly walked after filth.
12 Therefore am I unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
13 And when Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to King Contentious; but he is not able to heal you, neither shall he cure you of your wound.
14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away, I will take away, and there shall be none to deliver.
15 I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their guilt, and seek My face; in their trouble they will seek Me earnestly: