Yahweh Withdraws from Israel

1Hear 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 snare at Mizpah

And a net spread out on Tabor.

2And the revolters have dug deep into slaughtering,

But I will chastise all of them.

3I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me;

For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot;

Israel has defiled itself.

4Their deeds will not allow them

To return to their God.

For a spirit of harlotry is within them,

And they do not know Yahweh.

5Moreover, the pride of Israel answers against him,

And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;

Judah also has stumbled with them.

6They will go with their flocks and herds

To seek Yahweh, but they will not find Him;

He has withdrawn from them.

7They have dealt treacherously against Yahweh,

For they have borne children of strangers.

Now the new moon will devour them with their portions.

8Blow the horn in Gibeah,

The trumpet in Ramah.

Make a loud shout at Beth-aven:

“Behind you, Benjamin!”

9Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of reproof;

Among the tribes of Israel I will make known what is true.

10The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary;

On them I will pour out My wrath like water.

11Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,

Because he was determined to [†]walk after man’s command.

12Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim

And like rottenness to the house of Judah.

13Then Ephraim saw his sickness,

And Judah his sore,

So Ephraim went to Assyria

And sent to [†]King Jareb.

But he is unable to heal you

Or to cure you of your sore.

14For I will be like a lion to Ephraim

And like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away;

I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver.

15I will go away and return to My place

Until they [†]acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;

In their affliction they will seek Me earnestly.