Hosea 5-6

English Standard Version

Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah

5 ^(A)Hear this, O priests!
    Pay attention, O house of Israel!
Give ear, O house of the king!
    For the judgment is for you;
for ^(B)you have been a snare at Mizpah
    and a net spread upon ^(C)Tabor.
²And ^(D)the revolters ^(E)have gone deep into slaughter,
    but ^(F)I will discipline all of them.

³^(G)I know Ephraim,
    and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;
    Israel is defiled.
⁴^(H)Their deeds do not permit them
    to return to their God.
For ^(I)the spirit of whoredom is within them,
    and they know not the Lord.

⁵^(J)The pride of Israel testifies to his face;^[a]
    Israel and ^(K)Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt;
    ^(L)Judah also shall stumble with them.
⁶^(M)With their flocks and herds they shall go
    to seek the Lord,
^(N)but they will not find him;
    ^(O)he has withdrawn from them.
⁷^(P)They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;
    for they have borne alien children.
    Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

⁸^(Q)Blow the horn in ^(R)Gibeah,
    the trumpet in ^(S)Ramah.
Sound the alarm at ^(T)Beth-aven;
    we follow you,^[b] O Benjamin!
⁹Ephraim shall become a desolation
    in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
    I make known what is sure.
¹⁰The princes of Judah have become
    like ^(U)those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
    my wrath like water.
¹¹Ephraim is ^(V)oppressed, crushed in judgment,
    because he was determined to go after filth.^[c]
¹²But I am ^(W)like a moth to Ephraim,
    and ^(X)like dry rot to the house of Judah.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness,
    and Judah ^(Y)his wound,
then Ephraim went ^(Z)to Assyria,
    and sent to the great king.^[d]
^(AA)But he is not able to cure you
    or heal ^(AB)your wound.
¹⁴For I will be ^(AC)like a lion to ^(AD)Ephraim,
    and like a young lion to the house of ^(AE)Judah.
^(AF)I, even I, will tear and go away;
    I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

¹⁵^(AG)I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and ^(AH)in their distress earnestly seek me.

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

6 “Come, let us ^(AI)return to the Lord;
    for ^(AJ)he has torn us, that he may heal us;
    he has struck us down, and ^(AK)he will bind us up.
²After two days ^(AL)he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
³^(AM)Let us know; ^(AN)let us press on to know the Lord;
    ^(AO)his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us ^(AP)as the showers,
    ^(AQ)as the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴What shall I do with you, ^(AR)O ^(AS)Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O ^(AT)Judah?
Your love is ^(AU)like a morning cloud,
    ^(AV)like the dew that goes early away.
⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
    I have slain them ^(AW)by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgment goes forth as the light.
⁶For ^(AX)I desire steadfast love^[e] and not sacrifice,
    ^(AY)the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But ^(AZ)like Adam they ^(BA)transgressed the covenant;
    ^(BB)there they dealt faithlessly with me.
⁸^(BC)Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    ^(BD)tracked with blood.
⁹As robbers ^(BE)lie in wait for a man,
    so the priests band together;
they murder on the way to ^(BF)Shechem;
    they commit villainy.
¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
    ^(BG)Ephraim's whoredom is there; ^(BH)Israel is defiled.