• Yahweh Withdraws from Israel

  • 1 Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you, For you have been a snare at Mizpah And a net spread out on Tabor.
  • 2 And the revolters have dug deep into slaughtering, But I will chastise all of them.
  • 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot; Israel has defiled itself.
  • 4 Their deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, And they do not know Yahweh.
  • 5 Moreover, the pride of Israel answers against him, And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also has stumbled with them.
  • 6 They will go with their flocks and herds To seek Yahweh, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.
  • 7 They have dealt treacherously against Yahweh, For they have borne children of strangers. Now the new moon will devour them with their portions.
  • 8 Blow the horn in Gibeah, The trumpet in Ramah. Make a loud shout at Beth-aven: “Behind you, Benjamin!”
  • 9 Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of reproof; Among the tribes of Israel I will make known what is true.
  • 10 The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary; On them I will pour out My wrath like water.
  • 11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, Because he was determined to walk after man’s command.
  • 12 Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim And like rottenness to the house of Judah.
  • 13 Then Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his sore, So Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you Or to cure you of your sore.
  • 14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away; I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver.
  • 15 I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will seek Me earnestly.