⁴ Yet let no one contend,
    and let none accuse,
    for with you is my contention, O priest.^[a](C)
5 You shall stumble by day;
    the prophet also shall stumble with you by night,
    and I will destroy your mother.^(D)
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!
    Because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you from being a priest to me;
and since you have forgotten the law of your God,
    I also will forget your children.^(E)

⁷ The more they increased,
    the more they sinned against me;
    they changed^[b] their glory into shame.^(F)
8 They feed on the sin of my people;
    they are greedy for their iniquity.
⁹ And it shall be like people, like priest;
    I will punish them for their ways
    and repay them for their deeds.^(G)
10 They shall eat but not be satisfied;
    they shall prostitute themselves but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
to devote themselves to^{(H) 11}     prostitution.

Therefore your daughters prostitute themselves,
    and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.^(K)
14 I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves
    nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery,
for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
    and sacrifice with female attendants;
thus a people without understanding comes to ruin.^(L)

¹⁵ Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel,
    do not let Judah become guilty.
Do not enter into Gilgal
    or go up to Beth-aven,
    and do not swear, “As the Lord lives.”^(M)
16 Like a stubborn heifer,
    Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
    like a lamb in a broad pasture?^(N)

¹⁷ Ephraim is joined to idols—
    let him alone.
¹⁸ When their drinking is ended, they indulge in sexual orgies;
    they love lewdness more than their glory.^[c](O)
19 A wind has wrapped them^[d] in its wings,
    and they shall be ashamed because of their altars.^[e](P)

³ I know Ephraim,
    and Israel is not hidden from me,
for now, O Ephraim, you have prostituted yourself;
    Israel is defiled.^(R)
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.^(S)

⁵ Israel’s pride testifies against him;
    Ephraim^[g] stumbles in his guilt;
    Judah also stumbles with them.^(T)
6 With their flocks and herds they shall go
    to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
    he has withdrawn from them.^(U)
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.^(V)

⁸ Blow the horn in Gibeah,
    the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;
    look behind you, Benjamin!^(W)
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
    in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
    I declare what is sure.^(X)
10 The princes of Judah have become
    like those who remove the landmark;
on them I will pour out
    my wrath like water.^(Y)
11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
    because he was determined to go after vanity.^[h]
12 Therefore I am like maggots to Ephraim
    and like rottenness to the house of Judah.^(Z)
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness
    and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria
    and sent to the great king.^[i]
But he is not able to cure you
    or heal your wound.^(AA)
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.^(AB)
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:^(AC)