1 “When I would have healed Israel, Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, And the wickedness of Samaria. For Ezek. 23:4–8; Hos. 5:1 they have committed fraud; A thief comes in; A band of robbers takes spoil outside.
2 They do not consider in their hearts That Ps. 25:7; Jer. 14:10; 17:1; Hos. 8:13; 9:9; Amos 8:7 I remember all their wickedness; Now their own deeds have surrounded them; They are before My face.
3 They make a Hos. 1:1 king glad with their wickedness, And princes Mic. 7:3; (Rom. 1:32) with their lies.
4 “They Jer. 9:2; 23:10 are all adulterers. Like an oven heated by a baker— He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough, Until it is leavened.
5 In the day of our king Princes have made him sick, inflamed with Is. 28:1, 7 wine; 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. Is. 64:7 None among them calls upon Me.
8 “Ephraim Ps. 106:35 has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned.
9 Is. 1:7; 42:25; Hos. 8:7 Aliens have devoured his strength, But he does not know it; Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, Yet he does not know it.
10 And the Hos. 5:5 pride of Israel testifies to his face, But Is. 9:13 they do not return to the Lord their God, Nor seek Him for all this.
11 Futile Reliance on the Nations “Ephraim Hos. 11:11 also is like a silly dove, without sense— Is. 30:3 They call to Egypt, They go to Hos. 5:13; 8:9 Assyria.
12 Wherever they go, I will Ezek. 12:13 spread My net on them; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them Lev. 26:14; Deut. 28:15;2 Kin. 17:13 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! Though Ex. 18:8; Mic. 6:4 I redeemed them, Yet they have spoken lies against Me.
14 Job 35:9, 10; Ps. 78:36; Jer. 3:10; Zech. 7:5 They did not cry out to Me with their heart When they wailed upon their beds. “They assemble together for grain and new Judg. 9:27; Amos 2:8 wine, They rebel against Me;
15 Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms, Yet they devise evil against Me;
16 They return, but not to the Most High; Ps. 78:57 They are like a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword For the Ps. 73:9; Dan. 7:25; Mal. 3:13, 14 cursings of their tongue. This shall be their derision Deut. 28:68; Ezek. 23:32; Hos. 8:13; 9:3 in the land of Egypt.