Hosea, 5
1. Hear this, you priests, listen, House of Israel, pay attention, royal House, for it is you who have justice in your care, but you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net outspread on Tabor.
1. Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel! Hearken, O house of the king! For the judgment pertains to you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
2. They have dug the ditch deep at Shittim and so I am going to punish them all.
2. And they have made deep the pit of Shittim; but I will chastise all of them.
3. Ephraim have I known, Israel is not hidden from me; and yet, Ephraim, you have played the whore, Israel is befouled.
3. I know E'phraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, O E'phraim, you have played the harlot, Israel is defiled.
4. Their deeds do not allow them to return to their God, since an urge to play the whore possesses them and they no longer know Yahweh.
4. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of harlotry is within them, and they know not the LORD.
5. Israel's arrogance is his accuser, the guilt of Israel and Ephraim is their undoing, Judah too will be undone with them.
5. The pride of Israel testifies to his face; E'phraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them.
6. Though they go in search of Yahweh with their sheep and cattle, they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.
6. With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.
7. They have betrayed Yahweh because they have fathered bastards; now the new moon will devour them and their fields.
7. They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
8. Sound the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah, raise the war cry in Beth-Aven, 'We are behind you, Benjamin!'
8. Blow the horn in Gib'e-ah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-a'ven; tremble, O Benjamin!
9. When the day of punishment comes, Ephraim will be a wasteland; on the tribes of Israel I have pronounced certain doom.
9. E'phraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.
10. The rulers of Judah act like men who move the boundary stone; I shall pour my wrath out on them like a flood.
10. The princes of Judah have become like those who remove the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water.
11. Ephraim is oppressed, crushed by the sentence, for having deliberately followed a Lie.
11. E'phraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity.
12. Because of this, I shall be like ringworm for Ephraim and like gangrene for the House of Judah.
12. Therefore I am like a moth to E'phraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
13. Once Ephraim realised that he was sick and Judah that he had an ulcer, Ephraim then went to Assyria, he sent messengers to the Great King; but he has no power to cure you or to heal you of your sore;
13. When E'phraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then E'phraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.
14. for I shall be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the House of Judah; I myself shall rend them, then go my way, shall carry them off, beyond hope of rescue.
14. For I will be like a lion to E'phraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will rend and go away, I will carry off, and none shall rescue.
15. I shall go back to my place until they confess their guilt and seek me, seek me eagerly in their distress.
15. I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress they seek me, saying,
