1when I would heal Israel,the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,and the evil deeds of Samaria,for they deal falsely;the thief breaks in,and the bandits raid outside.2But they do not considerthat I remember all their evil.Now their deeds surround them;they are before my face.3By their evil they make the king glad,and the princes by their treachery.4They are all adulterers;they are like a heated ovenwhose baker ceases to stir the fire,from the kneading of the doughuntil it is leavened.5On the day of our king, the princesbecame sick with the heat of wine;he stretched out his hand with mockers.6For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;all night their anger smolders;in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.7All of them are hot as an oven,and they devour their rulers.All their kings have fallen,and none of them calls upon me.8Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9Strangers devour his strength,
and he knows it not;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
and he knows it not.
10The pride of Israel testifies to his face;a
yet they do not return to theLord their God,
nor seek him, for all this.
11Ephraim is like a dove,
silly and without sense,
calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.
12As they go, I will spread over them my net;
I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;
I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.
13Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
I would redeem them,
but they speak lies against me.
14They do not cry to me from the heart,
but they wail upon their beds;
for grain and wine they gash themselves;
they rebel against me.
15Although I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise evil against me.
16They return, but not upward;b
they are like a treacherous bow;
their princes shall fall by the sword
because of the insolence of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Footnotes:
a10 Orin his presence
b16 Orto the Most High
