| New Living Translation | English Standard Version |
| 1“I want to heal Israel, but its sins are too great. Samaria is filled with liars. Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside! | 1when I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside. |
| 2Its people don’t realize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds are all around them, and I see them all. | 2But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face. |
| 3“The people entertain the king with their wickedness, and the princes laugh at their lies. | 3By their evil they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery. |
| 4They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is kept hot while the baker is kneading the dough. | 4They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. |
| 5On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine, carousing with those who mock them. | 5On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers. |
| 6Their hearts are like an oven blazing with intrigue. Their plot smolders through the night, and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire. | 6For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. |
| 7Burning like an oven, they consume their leaders. They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me for help. | 7All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me. |
| 8“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners, making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake! | 8Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. |
| 9Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don’t even know it. Their hair is gray, but they don’t realize they’re old and weak. | 9Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not. |
| 10Their arrogance testifies against them, yet they don’t return to the LORD their God or even try to find him. | 10The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this. |
| 11“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help. | 11Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria. |
| 12But as they fly about, I will throw my net over them and bring them down like a bird from the sky. I will punish them for all the evil they do. | 12As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the heavens; I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. |
| 13“What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me! Let them die, for they have rebelled against me. I wanted to redeem them, but they have told lies about me. | 13Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. |
| 14They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from me. | 14They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. |
| 15I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot evil against me. | 15Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. |
| 16They look everywhere except to the Most High. They are as useless as a crooked bow. Their leaders will be killed by their enemies because of their insolence toward me. Then the people of Egypt will laugh at them. | 16They return, but not upward; they are like a treacherous bow; their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. |
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