LEB HOS section

The Priests Are a Snare

5 Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
- Because the judgment applies to you;
because you have been a snare for Mizpah,
- and a net spread out on Tabor;
2 they dug a deep pit[fn] in Shittim,
- but I am a punishment for all of them.
3 I myself know Ephraim,
- and Israel is not hidden from me;
because now you have played the whore, O Ephraim—
- Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not permit them
- to return them to God.
Because a spirit of whoredom is in their midst,
- they do not know Yahweh.
5 The pride of Israel testifies against him ,[fn]
- and Israel and Ephraim stumble in their guilt,
  - and Judah stumbles with them.
6 With their flocks[fn] and herds[fn] they will go
- to seek Yahweh, but they will not find him;
  - he has withdrawn from them.
7 They have dealt faithlessly with Yahweh
- because they have borne illegitimate children.
Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.
8 Blow the horn[fn] in Gibeah,
- the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm in Beth-aven;
- look behind you, Benjamin.
9 Ephraim will be a desolation
- in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
- I will reveal what is true.
10 The princes of Judah have become
- like those who remove a landmark;
on them I will pour out
- my wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed,
- crushed in judgment,
because he was determined
- to go after filth.[fn]
12 But I am like a maggot to Ephraim
- and like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 And when Ephraim saw his illness,
- and Judah his wound,
Ephraim went to Assyria,
- he sent to the great king.[fn]
But he was unable to cure you
- and heal your wound.
14 Because I will be like a lion to Ephraim
- and like a fierce strong lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear and I will go;
- I will carry off, and there is no one who delivers.
15 I will return again[fn] to my place
- until they acknowledge their guilt
  - and seek my face;
- in their distress they will search[fn] me.

5:? Hebrew uncertain

5:? Literally “against his face;” see 7:10

5:? Hebrew “flock”

5:? Hebrew “herd”

5:? Hebrew “shofar”

5:? Hebrew uncertain; another possible translation is “that he follows human commands”

5:? Some translate literally “King Jareb” (see the NASB, NKJV)

5:? Literally “I will go, I will return”

5:? Or “they will beg favor of”

LEB by section HOS 5:1

The Priests Are a Snare