5 “Hear this, cohanim!
Pay attention, house of Isra’el!
Listen, house of the king!
For judgment is coming to you.
You have become a snare for Mitzpah
and a net spread on Tavor.
² The rebels have deepened their slaughter,
and I am rejected by all of them.

³ “I know Efrayim;
Isra’el is not hidden from me;
for now, Efrayim, you are a whore;
Isra’el is defiled.”

⁴ Their deeds will not allow them
to return to their God,
for the spirit of whoring is in them,
and they don’t know Adonai.
⁵ Isra’el’s arrogance will testify in his face;
Isra’el and Efrayim will stumble in their crimes;
Y’hudah too will stumble with them.
⁶ With their flocks and herds
they will go in search of Adonai.
But they won’t find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
⁷ They have betrayed Adonai,
by fathering foreign children.
Now within the month the invaders
will devour their lands.

⁸ “Blow the shofar in Giv‘ah,
a trumpet at Ramah;
sound an alarm at Beit-Aven:
‘Behind you, Binyamin!’
⁹ Efrayim will be laid waste
when the day for punishment comes;
I am announcing to the tribes of Isra’el
what will surely happen.
¹⁰ The leaders of Y’hudah are like men
who move boundary stones;
I will pour my fury out
upon them like water.
¹¹ Efrayim is oppressed, crushed by the judgment,
because he deliberately sought out futility.
¹² Therefore I am like a moth to Efrayim
and like rottenness to the house of Y’hudah.
¹³ When Efrayim saw his sickness
and Y’hudah his wound,
Efrayim went to Ashur
and sent envoys to a warring king;
but he can’t heal you
or cure your wound.
¹⁴ For to Efrayim I will be like a lion,
and like a young lion to the house of Y’hudah —
I will tear them up and go away;
I will carry them off, and no one will rescue.
¹⁵ I will go and return to my place,
till they admit their guilt and search for me,
seeking me eagerly in their distress.”

6 Come, let us return to Adonai;
for he has torn, and he will heal us;
he has struck, and he will bind our wounds.
² After two days, he will revive us;
on the third day, he will raise us up;
and we will live in his presence.
³ Let us know, let us strive to know Adonai.
That he will come is as certain as morning;
he will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rains that water the earth.
⁴ “Efrayim, what should I do to you?
Y’hudah, what should I do to you?
For your ‘faithful love’ is like a morning cloud,
like dew that disappears quickly.
⁵ This is why I have cut them to pieces by the prophets,
slaughtered them with the words from my mouth —
the judgment on you shines out like light.
⁶ For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices,
knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁷ “But they, just like men, have broken the covenant,
they have been faithless in dealing with me.
⁸ Gil‘ad is a city of criminals,
covered with bloody footprints;
⁹ just as bands of robbers wait to ambush someone,
so does a gang of cohanim.
They commit murder on the road to Sh’khem!
Their conduct is an outrage!
¹⁰ In the house of Isra’el
I have seen a horrible thing;
whoring is found there in Efrayim,
Isra’el is defiled.
¹¹ For you, too, Y’hudah,
a harvest will come!

“When I restore the fortunes of my people,