1Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor. (Jud 4:6; Ho 4:1; Ho 6:9; Ho 9:8; Joe 1:2; Am 3:1; Mic 1:2)2And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them. (Ps 50:21; Isa 29:15; Ho 9:9; Ho 9:15)3I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. (Am 3:2; Am 5:12)4Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord. (Isa 59:2; Ho 4:12)5The pride of Israel testifies to his face;[1] Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them. (Ho 6:4; Ho 7:10)6With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them. (Isa 1:11; Ho 6:6; Ho 9:12)7They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields. (Ho 6:7)8Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you,[2] O Benjamin! (Jos 18:25; Jer 4:5; Ho 4:15; Ho 8:1; Ho 9:9; Ho 10:9)9Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure.10The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water. (De 19:14)11Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth.[3] (De 28:33; Am 4:1)12But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. (Job 13:28)13When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king.[4] But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound. (2Ki 15:19; Isa 1:5; Ho 7:11; Ho 8:9; Ho 12:1; Ho 14:3)14For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue. (Ho 6:4; Ho 13:7; Mic 5:8)15I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. (Le 26:40; Isa 26:16; Jer 29:10; Eze 6:9)