God Accuses Israel

1“When I was healing Israel,

Ephraim’s sin was uncovered,

along with Samaria’s wickedness.

While they craft lying schemes,

the thief invades,

and the gang of thieves plunders outside.

2It never occurs to them that I remember all their sin.

Now their actions have caught up with them,

and they have my attention.a

3They please the king with their evil,

and the princes with their dishonesty.

4All of them are adulterers—

they burn like an oven prepared by the baker,

who has ceased stoking it

until the dough is leavened.

5“On the king’s festival day

the princes got drunk from wine,

so the kingb joined the mockers.

6For they have stirred up themselvesc like an oven

as they lie in ambush.

Their baker sleeps through the night;

in the morning, the ovend will be blazing like a fire.

7They all burn like an oven;

they have consumed their judges;

all their kings have fallen—

not even one of them calls on me.

8“Ephraim compromises withe the nations;

he’s a half-baked cake.f

9Foreigners have consumed his strength,

and he hasn’t noticed.

Furthermore, his head is sprinkled with gray hair,

but he doesn’t realize it.

10Israel’s arrogance testifies against him;g

but they do not return to the LORD their God,

nor seek him in all of this.

11“Ephraim is also like a silly dove,

lacking sense:h

They call out to Egypt,

and turn toward Assyria.

12When they go,

I’ll cast my net over them.

I’ll bring them down, as one shootsi birds in the sky.

I’ll chasten them,

as the assembly has already heard.

13Woe to them—

because they have run away from me.

Ruin to them—

because they have sinned against me.

Even though I redeemed them,

they spread lies against me.

14They will not cry to me from their heart—

instead, they wail on their beds.

They gather together to eat and drink,j

turning away from me.

15“Though I have taught them

and strengthened their arms,

nevertheless they plot evil against me.

16They return—but not to the Most High.

They are like a defective weapon.k

Their princes will fall by the sword

because of their raging tongue,

and they will be a laughingstock in the land of Egypt.”