LEB HOS section

The Priests Are a Snare

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  - he has withdrawn from them.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 5:0b

The Priests Are a Snare