"When I would have healed Israel, Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, And the wickedness of Samaria. For they have committed fraud; A thief comes in; A band of robbers takes spoil outside. They do not consider in their hearts That I remember all their wickedness; Now their own deeds have surrounded them; They are before My face. They make a king glad with with wickedness, And princes with their lies. "They are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by a baker - He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough, Until it is leavened. In the day of our king Princes have made him sick, inflamed with wine; He stretched out his hand with scoffers. They prepare their heart like an oven, While they lie in wait; Their baker sleeps all night; In the morning it burns like a flaming fire. They are all hot, like an oven, And have devoured their judges; All their kings have fallen. None among them calls upon Me. "Ephraim has mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake unturned. Aliens have devoured his strength, but he does not know it; Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, Yet he does not know it. And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, But they do not return to the LORD their God, Nor seek Him for all this.
"Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense - They call to Egypt, They go to Assyria. Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them According to what their congregation has heard. "Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction to them, Because they have transgressed against Me! Though I redeemed them, Yet they have spoken lies against Me. They did not cry out to me with their heart When they wailed upon their beds. "They assemble together for grain and new wine, They rebel against Me; Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms, Yet they devise evil against Me; They return, but not to the Most High; They are like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword For the cursings of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
"Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like an eagle against the house of the LORD, Because they have transgressed My covenant And rebelled against My law. Israel will cry to me, 'My God, we know You!' Israel has rejected the good; The enemy will pursue him. "They set up kings, but not by me; They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them. Form their silver and gold They made idols for themselves - That they might be cut off. your calf is rejected, O Samaria! my anger is aroused against them - How long until they attain to innocence? For from Israel is even this: A workman made it, and it is not God; But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. "They sow the wind, And reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; It shall never produce meal. If it should produce, Aliens would swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up; Now they are among the Gentiles Like a vessel in which is no pleasure. For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey alone by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers. Yes, though they have hired among the nations, now I will gather them; And they shall sorrow a little, Because of the burden of the king of princes. "Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, They have become for him altars for sinning. I have written for him the great things of My law, But they wee considered a strange thing. For the sacrifices of my offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat it, But the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt. "For Israel has forgotten his Maker, And has built temples; Judah also has multiplied fortified cities; But I will send fire upon his cities, And it shall devour his palaces."
Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, For you have played the harlot against your God. you have made love for hire on every threshing floor. The threshing floor and the winepress Shall not feed them, And the new wine shall fail in her. They shall not dwell in the LORD's land, But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, And shall eat unclean things in Assyria. They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, Nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. it shall be like bread of mourners to them; All who eat it shall be defiled. For their bread shall be for their own like; It shall not come into the house of the LORD. What will you do in the appointed day, And in the day of the feast of the LORD? For indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver; Thorns shall be in their tents. The days of punishment have come; The days of recompense have come. Israel knows! The prophet is a fool, The spiritual man is insane, Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity. The watchman of Ephraim is with my God; But the prophet is a fowler's snare in all his ways - Enmity in the house of his God. They are deeply corrupted, As in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins. I found Israel Like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor, And separated themselves to that shame; They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
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