5 Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
    Because the judgment applies to you;
because you have been a snare for Mizpah,
    and a net spread out on Tabor;
² they dug a deep pit^[a] in Shittim,
    but I am a punishment for all of them.
³ I myself know Ephraim,
    and Israel is not hidden from me;
because now you have played the whore, O Ephraim—
    Israel is defiled.
⁴ Their deeds do not permit them
    to return them to God.
Because a spirit of whoredom is in their midst,
    they do not know Yahweh.
⁵ The pride of Israel testifies against him,^[b]
    and Israel and Ephraim stumble in their guilt,
        and Judah stumbles with them.
⁶ With their flocks^[c] and herds^[d] they will go
    to seek Yahweh, but they will not find him;
        he has withdrawn from them.
⁷ They have dealt faithlessly with Yahweh
    because they have borne illegitimate children.
Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.
⁸ Blow the horn^[e] in Gibeah,
    the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm in Beth-aven;
    look behind you, Benjamin.
⁹ Ephraim will be a desolation
    in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
    I will reveal what is true.
¹⁰ The princes of Judah have become
    like those who remove a landmark;
on them I will pour out
    my wrath like water.
¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed,
    crushed in judgment,
because he was determined
    to go after filth.^[f]
12 But I am like a maggot to Ephraim
    and like rottenness to the house of Judah.
¹³ And when Ephraim saw his illness,
    and Judah his wound,
Ephraim went to Assyria,
    he sent to the great king.^[g]
But he was unable to cure you
    and heal your wound.
¹⁴ Because I will be like a lion to Ephraim
    and like a fierce strong lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear and I will go;
    I will carry off, and there is no one who delivers.
¹⁵ I will return again^[h] to my place
    until they acknowledge their guilt
        and seek my face;
    in their distress they will search^[i] me.