Hosea 5-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah
5 Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, 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(A)
2 and a pit dug deep in Shittim,[a]
but I will punish all of them.
3 I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me,
for now, O Ephraim, you have prostituted yourself;
Israel is defiled.(B)
4 Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For the spirit of prostitution is within them,
and they do not know the Lord.(C)
5 Israel’s pride testifies against him;
Ephraim[b] stumbles in his guilt;
Judah also stumbles with them.(D)
6 With their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.(E)
7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord,
for they have borne illegitimate children.
Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields.(F)
8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,
the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;
look behind you, Benjamin!(G)
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I declare what is sure.(H)
10 The princes of Judah have become
like those who remove the landmark;
on them I will pour out
my wrath like water.(I)
11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after vanity.[c]
12 Therefore I am like maggots to Ephraim
and like rottenness to the house of Judah.(J)
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria
and sent to the great king.[d]
But he is not able to cure you
or heal your wound.(K)
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.(L)
15 I will return again to my place
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.
In their distress they will beg my favor:(M)
A Call to Repentance
6 “Come, let us return to the Lord,
for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
he has struck down, and he will bind us up.(N)
2 After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
3 Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
like the spring rains that water the earth.”(O)
Impenitence of Israel and Judah
4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes away early.(P)
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
and my[e] judgment goes forth as the light.(Q)
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.(R)
7 But at[f] Adam they transgressed the covenant;
there they dealt faithlessly with me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait[g] for someone,
so the priests are banded together;[h]
they murder on the road to Shechem;
they commit a monstrous crime.(S)
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
Ephraim’s prostitution is there; Israel is defiled.(T)
11 For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.
When I would restore the fortunes of my people,(U)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.