5
The guilt of priests and princes
1 Hear this, priests!
Attend, Israelites!
Listen, royal family!
For you is the judgment:
a snare you have become at Mizpeh,
and a net spread out on Tabor,
2 the rebels are deep in slaughter,
but I will discipline all.
3 I know Ephraim,
Israel is not hidden from me,
for you, Ephraim, have committed prostitution
and Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For the spirit of prostitution is within them,
they do not know the Lord.
5 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,
Israel, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin,
and Judah also stumbles with them.
6 With their sheep and their cattle
they will go to seek the Lord
but they will not find him,
he has withdrawn from them,
7 for they have been untrue to the Lord,
their children are strangers.
Their new moon festivals will soon destroy them and their fields.
8 Blow the trumpet in Gibeah,
the clarion in Ramah!
Raise the alarm in Beth-aven:
we are with you, Benjamin!*
9 Ephraim will become a desolation
in the day of punishment,
concerning the tribes of Israel
I make known what is certain.
10 The princes of Israel have become
like thieves who move boundary stones.
On them I will pour out my wrath like a flood.
11 Ephraim will be oppressed, crushed by judgment,
for they are determined to go after vanity†.
12 So I am like a moth to Ephraim,
like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 For when Ephraim saw their sickness
and Israel their wound,
Ephraim turned to Assyria,
to its patron king.
But he cannot heal you
nor relieve you of your wound.
14 For I myself will be like a lion to Ephraim,
like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, yes I, will rend and go my way,
I will carry off and none will rescue.
The lack of repentance and reform
15 I will return to my place,
until in remorse they seek my presence.
When they are in distress they will quickly seek me,
* 5:8 LXX: make Benjamin tremble † 5:11 So LXX. Heb. uncertain.