1when I would heal Israel,

Then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,

And the evil deeds of Samaria,

For they work falsehood;

The thief enters in;

Raiders [†]ransack outside,

2And they do not say to their hearts

That I remember all their evil.

Now their deeds are all around them;

They are before My face.

3With their evil they make the king glad,

And the princes with their deceptions.

4They are all adulterers,

Like an oven heated by the baker

Who ceases to stir up the fire

From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

5On the [†]day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine;

He stretched out his hand with scoffers,

6For their hearts are like an oven

As they draw near in their [†]plotting;

Their [†]anger [†]smolders all night;

In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

7All of them are hot like an oven,

And they devour their judges;

All their kings have fallen.

None of them calls on Me.

8Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim has become a cake not turned.

9Strangers devour his power,

Yet he does not know it;

Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,

Yet he does not know it.

10So the pride of Israel answers against him,

Yet they have not returned to Yahweh their God,

Nor have they sought Him, for all this.

11So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without a heart of wisdom;

They call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.

12When they go, I will spread My net over them;

I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.

I will chastise them in accordance with the report to their congregation.

13Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!

Destruction is theirs, for they have transgressed against Me!

And I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.

14And they do not cry out to Me in their heart

When they wail on their beds;

For the sake of grain and new wine they [†]gather together as sojourners;

They depart from Me.

15Although I disciplined and strengthened their arms,

Yet they devise evil against Me.

16They turn, but not [†]upward;

They are like a deceitful bow;

Their princes will fall by the sword

Because of the [†]indignation of their tongue.

This will be their scoffing in the land of Egypt.