Hosea 5:1-5

New International Reader's Version

The Lord Judges Israel

5 “Listen to me, you priests!
    Pay attention, people of Israel!
Listen, you members of the royal family!
    Here is my decision against you.
You have been like a trap at Mizpah.
    You have been like a net spread out on Mount Tabor.
²You refuse to obey me.
    You are knee-deep in killing.
    So I will punish all of you.
³I know all about the people of Ephraim.
    What Israel is doing is not hidden from me.
Now they have joined themselves to other gods.
    They have made themselves ‘unclean.’

⁴“They can’t return to me
    because they have done so many evil things.
In their hearts they long to act like prostitutes.
    They do not recognize me as the Lord.
⁵Israel’s pride proves that they are guilty.
    The people of Ephraim trip and fall because they have sinned.
    Judah falls down along with them.