Hosea 5-6

Common English Bible

Judgment on Israel and Judah

5 Hear this, priests!
        Pay attention, house of Israel!
    Listen, house of the king!
        The judgment concerns you because you have been a trap at Mizpah,
            and a net spread out upon Tabor.
²In their wicked condition, they have sunk deep into corruption;
        I will correct them through judgment.
³I know Ephraim;
    Israel doesn’t escape my eye;
        for now Ephraim
        you have acted like a prostitute;
    Israel is defiled.
⁴Their deeds don’t allow them
        to return to their God,
        because the spirit of prostitution is within them,
            and they don’t know the Lord.
⁵Israel’s pride is a witness against him;
        both Israel and Ephraim stagger because of their guilt;
        Judah staggers with them.
⁶With their sheep and their cattle they will go
        to seek the Lord,
        but they will not find him;
        he has withdrawn from them.
⁷They have acted faithlessly against the Lord;
        for their children have produced illegitimate children.
        Now the new moon will devour them^[a] along with their fields.

⁸Blow a horn in Gibeah;
        blow a trumpet in Ramah.
    Sound the warning at Beth-aven:
        “Look behind you, Benjamin!”
⁹Ephraim will become a horrible place
        on the Judgment Day.
    Against the tribes of Israel
        I will certainly announce what is to take place.
¹⁰The princes of Judah act like raiders who steal the land;
        I will pour out my anger like water upon them.
¹¹Ephraim is under pressure from its enemies;
        Ephraim’s rights aren’t protected.
        This is because Ephraim chose to pursue worthless things.
¹²Therefore, I am like a moth to Ephraim,
        and like decay to the house of Judah.
¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness,
        and Judah his wound,
    then Ephraim went to Assyria,
        and Ephraim sent for the great king.
    But he could not heal them;
        nor could he cure their wound.
¹⁴I am like a lion to Ephraim,
        like a young lion to the house of Judah.
    I am the one who tears the prey and goes forth;
        no one can snatch it from me.
¹⁵I will leave so that I can return to my place
        until they pay for their deeds,
        until they seek me.
    In their distress,
        they will beg for my favor:

6 “Come, let’s return to the Lord;
        for it is he who has injured us and will heal us;
        he has struck us down, but he will bind us up.
²After two days he will revive us;
        on the third day he will raise us up,
            so that we may live before him.
³Let’s know, let’s press on to know the Lord;
        whose appearing is as certain as the dawn;
        who will come to us like the showers,
        like the spring rains that give drink to the earth.”

Infidelity and divine retribution

⁴    Ephraim, what will I do with you?
            Judah, what will I do with you?
    Your love is like a morning cloud,
            like the dew that vanishes quickly.
⁵    Therefore, I have attacked them by the prophets,
            I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
                and my judgment goes forth like a light.
⁶    I desire faithful love and not sacrifice,
            the knowledge of God instead of entirely burned offerings.
⁷    But like Adam^[b] they broke the covenant;
            then they acted in bad faith against me.
⁸    Gilead is a city of wicked people,
            tracked with blood.
⁹    As robbers lie in wait for someone,
            so the priests are in league with each other;
                they murder on the road to Shechem;
            they have done evil things.
¹⁰    In the house of Israel I have seen something horrible;
            Ephraim acts like a prostitute; Israel is defiled.
¹¹    For you also, Judah, a harvest is appointed,
            when I would improve the circumstances of my people.