- 4Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. 2By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery they break out, and bloodshed touches bloodshed. 3Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwells therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 4Yet let no man quarrel, nor reprove another, for your people are as they that quarrel with the priest. 5Therefore shall you fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother. 6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
- Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me. Seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. 7As they were increased, so they sinned against me; therefore will I change their glory into shame. 8They eat up the sin of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity. 9And there shall be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways and reward them their doings, 10for they shall eat and not have enough, they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase, because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. 11Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart. 12My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declares unto them, for the spirit of whoredoms has caused them to err and they have gone whoring from under their God. 13They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good. Therefore, your daughters shall commit whoredom and your spouses shall commit adultery. 14I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery, for they themselves are separated with whores and they sacrifice with harlots. Therefore the people that does not understand shall fall.
- 15Though you, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not unto Gilgal, neither go up to Bethaven, nor swear, The Lord lives — 16for Israel slides back as a backsliding heifer. Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place. 17Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. 18Their drink is sour, they have committed whoredom continually, her rulers dearly love shame. 19The wind has bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
- 5Hear this, O priests, and listen, you house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you because you have been a snare on Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor. 2And the revolters are deep in slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. 3I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you commit whoredom, and Israel is defiled. 4They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God, for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord. 5And the pride of Israel does testify to his face; therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity. Judah also shall fall with them. 6They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them. 7They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have begotten strange children. Now shall a month devour them with their portions.
- 8Blow the horn in Gibeah and the trumpet in Ramah; cry aloud at Bethaven, After you, O Benjamin! 9Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. 10The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound; therefore, I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. 11Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the commandment. 12Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
- 13When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to king Jareb; yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. 14For 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 none shall rescue him. 15I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offense and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early.
- 6Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he has torn and he will heal us, he has smitten and he will bind us up. 2After two days will he revive us. In the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight. 3Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord; his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the spring and autumn rain unto the earth.
- 4O Ephraim, what shall I do unto you? O Judah, what shall I do unto you? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away. 5Therefore have I hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and your judgments are as the light that goes forth. 6For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 7But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against me.
- 8Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. 9And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent, for they commit lewdness. 10I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel, there is the whoredom of Ephraim; Israel is defiled. 11Also, O Judah, he has set a harvest for you when I returned the captives of my people.
- 7When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered and the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief comes in, and the troop of robbers spoils outside. 2And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face. 3They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. 4They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker who ceases from raising after he has kneaded the dough until it be leavened. 5In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners. 6For they have made ready their heart like an oven while they lie in wait, their baker sleeps all the night; in the morning, it burns as a flaming fire. 7They are all hot as an oven and have devoured their judges. All their kings are fallen, there is none among them that calls unto me.
- 8Ephraim, he has mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. 9Strangers have devoured his strength and he knows it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knows not. 10And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.
- 11Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart. They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. 12When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them, I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven, I will chastise them as their congregation has heard. 13Woe unto them, for they have fled from me; destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against me. Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me, 14and they have not cried unto me with their heart when they howled upon their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and wine, and they rebel against me. 15Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. 16They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue; this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
- 8Set the trumpet to your mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant and trespassed against my law. 2Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know you. 3Israel has cast off the thing that is good; the enemy shall pursue him. 4They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not; of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
- 5Your calf, O Samaria, has cast you off; my anger is kindled against them. How long will it be before they attain to innocence? 6For from Israel was it also — the workman made it, therefore it is not God. But the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. 7For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. It has no stalk, the bud shall yield no meal. If it so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
- 8Israel is swallowed up, now shall they be among the gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. 9For they are gone up to Assyria — a wild ass alone by himself. Ephraim has hired lovers. 10Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes. 11Because Ephraim has made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.
- 12I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing. 13They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of my offerings, and eat it; but the Lord accepts them not. Now will he remember their iniquity and visit their sins. They shall return to Egypt. 14For Israel has forgotten his Maker and builds temples, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.
- 9Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other people; for you have gone whoring from your God, you have loved a reward upon every grain floor. 2The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. 3They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. 4They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him. Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners. All that eat thereof shall be polluted, for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.
- 5What will you do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? 6For behold, they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them. The pleasant places for their silver — nettles shall possess them, thorns shall be in their tabernacles.
- 7The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come. Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of your iniquity and the great hatred. 8The watchman of Ephraim was with my God, but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. 9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah; therefore, he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
- 10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time. But they went to Baal-Peor and separated themselves unto that shame, and their abominations were according as they loved.
- 11As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird — from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception. 12Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left. Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them. 13Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
- 14Give them, O Lord — what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 15All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. For the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters. 16Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. 17My God will cast them away because they did not listen unto him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
- 10Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself; according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars, according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 2Their heart is divided, now shall they be found faulty. He shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. 3For now they shall say, We have no king because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us? 4They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant; thus, judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
- 5The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven, for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. 6It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb.
- Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. 7As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water. 8The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us — and to the hills, Fall on us.
- 9O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood; the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them. 10It is in my desire that I should chastise them, and the people shall be gathered against them when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows. 11And Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught and loves to tread out the grain, but I passed over upon her fair neck. I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.
- 12Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until he come and rain righteousness upon you. 13You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies because you did trust in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men. 14Therefore shall a tumult arise among your people and all your fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle — the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. 15So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness. In a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.
- 11When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. 2As they called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed unto the Baalim, and burned incense to engraved images. 3I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed them. 4I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love, and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid food unto them.
- 5He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return. 6And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them because of their own counsels. 7And my people are bent to backsliding from me. Though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt him.
- 8How shall I give you up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you, Israel? How shall I make you as Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboiim? My heart is turned toward you and my mercies are extended to gather you. 9I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man — the Holy One in your midst — and I will enter into the city. 10They shall walk after the Lord, he shall roar like a lion. When he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west. 11They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt and as a dove out of the land of Assyria. And I will place them in their houses, says the Lord. 12Ephraim encompasses me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah yet rules with God and is faithful with the saints. 12Ephraim feeds on wind and follows after the east wind, he daily increases lies and desolation. And they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
- 2The Lord has also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. 3He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God. 4Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed, he wept and made supplication unto him. He found him in Beth-el, and there he spoke with us, 5even the Lord God of Hosts; the Lord is his memorial. 6Therefore, turn to your God, keep mercy and judgment, and wait on your God continually.
- 7He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand, he loves to oppress. 8And Ephraim said, Yet I have become rich, I have found me out substance, in all my labors they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin. 9And I that am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt will yet make you to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast. 10I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.
- 11Is there iniquity in Gilead? Surely they are vanity. They sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal, yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields. 12And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. 13And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.
- 14Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly, therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. 13When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. 2And now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding — all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. 3Therefore, they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
- 4Yet I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me, for there is no savior besides me. 5I did know you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. 6According to their pasture, so were they filled. They were filled and their heart was exalted, therefore they have forgotten me. 7Therefore, I will be unto them as a lion, as a leopard by the way will I observe them. 8I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the casing of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion; the wild beast shall tear them.
- 9O Israel, you have destroyed yourself, but in me is your help. 10I will be your king. Where is any other that may save you in all your cities, and your judges of whom you said, Give me a king and princes? 11I gave you a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath.
- 12The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hidden. 13The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. 14I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death.
- O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction. Repentance shall be hidden from my eyes. 15Though he is fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up. He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels. 16Samaria shall become desolate, for she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
- 14O Israel, return unto the Lord your God, for you have fallen by your iniquity. 2Take with you words and turn to the Lord; say unto him, Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips. 3Assyria shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say anymore to the work of our hands, You are our gods — for in you the fatherless finds mercy.
- 4I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away from him. 5I will be as the dew unto Israel, he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. 6His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. 7They that dwell under his shadow shall return, they shall revive as the grain and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. 8Ephraim shall say, What have I to do anymore with idols? I have heard him, and observed him; I am like a green fir tree. From me is your fruit found. 9Who is wise, and he shall understand these things, prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fall therein.
Chapter 2