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Yahweh Withdraws from Israel

¹ Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Give ear, O house of the king!
For the judgment is for you,
For you have been a ^(C1)snare at Mizpah
And a net spread out on Tabor.

² And the ^(C1)revolters have ^(C2)dug deep into slaughtering,
But I will chastise all of them.

³ I ^(C1)know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;
For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot;
Israel has defiled itself.

⁴ Their deeds will not allow them
To return to their God.
For a ^(C1)spirit of harlotry is within them,
And they ^(C2)do not know Yahweh.

⁵ Moreover, the ^(C1)pride of Israel answers against him,
And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;
^(C2)Judah also has stumbled with them.

⁶ They will ^(C1)go with their flocks and herds
To seek Yahweh, but they will ^(C2)not find Him;
He has ^(C3)withdrawn from them.

⁷ They have ^(C1)dealt treacherously against Yahweh,
For they have borne ^(C2)children of strangers.
Now the ^(C3)new moon will devour them with their portions.

^8 (C1)Blow the horn in ^(C2)Gibeah,
The trumpet in Ramah.
Make a loud shout at Beth-aven:
"^(C3)Behind you, Benjamin!"

⁹ Ephraim will become a ^(C1)desolation in the ^(C2)day of reproof;
Among the tribes of Israel I ^(C3)will make known what is true.

¹⁰ The princes of Judah have become like those who ^(C1)move a boundary;
On them I will ^(C2)pour out My wrath ^(C3)like water.

¹¹ Ephraim is ^(C1)oppressed, crushed in judgment,
^(C2)Because he was determined to ^(F1)walk after man's command.

¹² Therefore I am like a ^(C1)moth to Ephraim
And like rottenness to the house of Judah.

¹³ Then Ephraim saw his sickness,
And Judah his sore,
So Ephraim went to ^(C1)Assyria
And sent to ^(F1)(C2)King Jareb.
But he is ^(C3)unable to heal you
Or to cure you of your sore.

¹⁴ For I will be ^(C1)like a lion to Ephraim
And like a young lion to the house of Judah.
^(C2)I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away;
I will carry away, and there will be ^(C3)none to deliver.

¹⁵ I will go away and return to My place
Until they ^(F1)(C1)acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will ^(C2)seek Me earnestly.