1 “When I would have healed Israel,
Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,
And the wickedness of Samaria.
# Forthey have committed fraud;
A thief comes in;
A band of robbers takes spoil outside.
2 They do not consider in their hearts
# ThatI remember all their wickedness;
Now their own deeds have surrounded them;
They are before My face.
3 They make aking glad with their wickedness,
# And princeswith their lies.
4 “Theyareall adulterers.
Like an oven heated by a baker—
He ceases stirringthefireafter kneading the dough,
Until it is leavened.
5 In the day of our king
# Princes have madehimsick, inflamed withwine;
He stretched out his hand with scoffers.
6 They prepare their heart like an oven,
While they lie in wait;
Their baker sleeps all night;
In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot, like an oven,
And have devoured their judges;
All their kings have fallen.
# None among them calls upon Me.
8 “Ephraimhas mixed himself among the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake unturned.
9 Aliens have devoured his strength,
But he does not knowit;
Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,
Yet he does not knowit.
10 And thepride of Israel testifies to his face,
# Butthey do not return to theLordtheir God,
Nor seek Him for all this.
Futile Reliance on the Nations
11 “Ephraimalso is like a silly dove, without sense—
# They call to Egypt,
# They go toAssyria.
12 Wherever they go, I willspread My net on them;
I will bring them down like birds of the air;
I will chastise them
# According to what their congregation has heard.
13 “Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!
Destruction to them,
Because they have transgressed against Me!
# ThoughI redeemed them,
Yet they have spoken lies against Me.
14 They did not cry out to Me with their heart
When they wailed upon their beds.
# “They assemble together for grain and newwine,
They rebel against Me;
15 Though I disciplinedandstrengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me;
16 They return,butnot to the Most High;
# They are like a treacherous bow.
Their princes shall fall by the sword
# For thecursings of their tongue.
# Thisshallbetheir derisionin the land of Egypt.