Hosea 5

Names of God Bible

The Lord Announces the Verdict against Israel

5 “Listen to this, you priests!
    Pay attention, nation of Israel!
    Open your ears, royal family!
    This is my decision about you.
    You set traps at Mizpah
    and spread out nets on Mount Tabor.
²You are deeply involved in sin.
    So I will punish all of you.^[a]
³I know Ephraim,
    and Israel isn’t a stranger to me.
    Now, Ephraim, you are acting like a prostitute,
    and Israel is unclean.^[b]

⁴“The wicked things that the people have done
    keep them from returning to their Elohim.
        They have a spirit of prostitution,
            and they don’t know Yahweh.
⁵The people of Israel’s arrogance testifies against them.
    Israel and Ephraim stumble because of their sins,
    and Judah stumbles with them.
⁶They go with their sheep and their cattle to search for Yahweh,
    but they can’t find him.
        He has left them.
⁷They have been unfaithful to Yahweh,
    because their children do not belong to him.
    Now their New Moon Festivals will devour them and their fields.

⁸“Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah.
    Blow the trumpet in Ramah.
    Sound the alarm at Beth Aven, you descendants of Benjamin.
⁹Ephraim will become a wasteland
    when the time for punishment comes.
        I will make the truth known among the tribes of Israel.
¹⁰The leaders of Judah are like those who move boundary markers.
    I will pour my fury on them like water.
¹¹Ephraim is oppressed—crushed by punishment,
    because its people are determined to chase idols.^[c]
¹²I will destroy Ephraim as a moth destroys clothing.
    I will destroy the nation of Judah as rot destroys wood.

¹³“When Ephraim saw that he was sick
    and when Judah saw his own wounds,
        Ephraim went to Assyria to ask the great king for help.^[d]
            But the king couldn’t cure them or heal their wounds.
¹⁴I will be like a lion to Ephraim
    and like a young lion to the nation of Judah.
    I will carry them off, and no one will rescue them.
¹⁵I will go back to my place until they admit that they are guilty.
    Then they will search for me.
        In their distress they will eagerly look for me.”

Footnotes

Hosea 5:2 Hebrew meaning of this verse uncertain.
Hosea 5:3 “Unclean” refers to anything that Moses’ Teachings say is not presentable to God.
Hosea 5:11 Greek, Syriac, Targum; Masoretic Text “to chase commands.”
Hosea 5:13 Or “to ask King Jareb for help.”