Ephraim’s Iniquity

1In My healing of Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim† is uncovered,

and the wickedness of Samaria;

for they practice deceit, and a thief comes in;

bandits raid in the street.

2And they do not tell their hearts

that all their evil I remember.

Now their deeds have surrounded them;

they are before My face.

3With their evil they make glad the king,

and with their lies—princes.

4They are all adulterers,

like an oven heated by a baker,

who ceases stirring the fire

after kneading the dough until it is leavened.

5On the day of our king, the princes became sick,

raging from the wine;

he stretched out his hand

with the mockers.

6For they approach;

like an oven is their heart in ambush;

all night their baker is sleeping;†

in the morning it burns like a fire of flame.

7All of them are hot like an oven,

and they devour their judges;

all their kings have fallen;

no one among them calls to Me.

8Ephraim, he has mixed himself with the nations;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

9Strangers have devoured his power,

and he does not know;

even gray hairs are scattered on him,

and he does not know.

10And the pride of Israel testifies to his face;

they do not return to YHWH their God,

they do not seek Him in all this.

11And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without sense;

to Egypt they call; to Assyria they go.

12When they go, I will spread over them My net,

like birds of the heavens I will bring them down;

I will chastise them

according to the report of their congregation.†

13Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!

Destruction be to them, because they have transgressed against Me!

And though I would redeem them,

they have spoken lies against Me.

14And they did not cry out to Me with their heart,

when they wailed upon their beds;

they slash themselves† for grain and new wine;

they rebel against Me.

15And I disciplined—I strengthened their arms;

against Me they devise evil.

16They return, not to the Most High;

they are like a bow of slackness;

their princes will fall by the sword,

from the insolence of their tongue;

this is their derision

in the land of Egypt.