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¹ Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel! Hearken, O house of the king! For the judgment pertains to you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.² And they have made deep the pit of Shittim; but I will chastise all of them.³ I know E'phraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, O E'phraim, you have played the harlot, Israel is defiled.⁴ Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of harlotry is within them, and they know not the LORD.⁵ The pride of Israel testifies to his face; E'phraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them.⁶ With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.⁷ They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

⁸ Blow the horn in Gib'e-ah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-a'ven; tremble, O Benjamin!⁹ E'phraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.¹⁰ The princes of Judah have become like those who remove the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water.¹¹ E'phraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity.¹² Therefore I am like a moth to E'phraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.¹³ When E'phraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then E'phraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.¹⁴ For I will be like a lion to E'phraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will rend and go away, I will carry off, and none shall rescue.¹⁵ I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress they seek me, saying,