Hosea 5:1-15 - The Priests Are A Snare

¹ Hear this, O ye priests, and hearken, O house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king, for to you pertains the judgment. For ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. ² And the revolters have gone deep in making slaughter, but I am a rebuker of them all. ³ I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me. For now, O Ephraim, thou have played the harlot; Israel is defiled. ⁴ Their doings will not allow them to turn to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know LORD. ⁵ And the pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their iniquity. Judah also shall stumble with them. ⁶ They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek LORD, but they shall not find him. He has withdrawn himself from them. ⁷ They have dealt treacherously against LORD, for they have borne strange sons. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

⁸ Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah. Sound an alarm at Beth-aven, behind thee, O Benjamin. ⁹ Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of rebuke. I have made known that which shall surely be among the tribes of Israel. ¹⁰ The rulers of Judah are like those who remove the landmark. I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. ¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed. He is crushed in judgment, because he was content to walk after [man's] command. ¹² Therefore I am to Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. ¹³ When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah [saw] his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb. But he is not able to heal you, nor will he cure you of your wound. ¹⁴ For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away, I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver. ¹⁵ I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.