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.