1 “Whenever I want to heal my people Israel and make them prosperous again, all I can see is their wickedness and the evil they do. They cheat one another; they break into houses and steal; they rob people in the streets. 2 It never enters their heads that I will remember all this evil; but their sins surround them, and I cannot avoid seeing them.”
Conspiracy in the Palace
3 The Lord says, “People deceive the king and his officers by their evil plots. 4 They are all treacherous and disloyal. Their hatred smolders like the fire in an oven, which is not stirred by the baker until the dough is ready to bake. 5 On the day of the king's celebration they made the king and his officials drunk and foolish with wine. 6 Yes, they burned like an oven with their plotting. All night their anger smoldered, and in the morning it burst into flames.
7 “In the heat of their anger they murdered their rulers. Their kings have been assassinated one after another, but no one prays to me for help.”
Israel and the Nations
8 The Lord says, “The people of Israel are like a half-baked loaf of bread. They rely on the nations around them 9 and do not realize that this reliance on foreigners has robbed them of their strength. Their days are numbered, but they don't even know it. 10 The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. In spite of everything that has happened, they have not returned to me, the Lord their God. 11 Israel flits around like a silly pigeon; first her people call on Egypt for help, and then they run to Assyria! 12 But I will spread out a net and catch them like birds as they go by. I will punish them for the evil they have done.
13 “They are doomed! They have left me and rebelled against me. They will be destroyed. I wanted to save them, but their worship of me was false. 14 They have not prayed to me sincerely, but instead they throw themselves down and wail as the heathen do. When they pray for grain and wine, they gash themselves like pagans. What rebels they are! 15 Even though I was the one who brought them up and made them strong, they plotted against me. 16 They keep on turning away from me to a god that is powerless. They are as unreliable as a crooked bow. Because their leaders talk arrogantly, they will die a violent death, and the Egyptians will laugh.”
1 When I woulde haue healed Israel, then the iniquitie of Ephraim was discouered, and the wickednesse of Samaria: for they haue dealt falsly: and the theefe commeth in, and the robber spoyleth without. 2 And they consider not in their hearts, that I remember all their wickednes: now their owne inuentions haue beset them about: they are in my sight. 3 They make the King glad with their wickednesse, and the princes with their lies. 4 They are all adulterers, and as a very ouen heated by ye baker, which ceaseth from raysing vp, and from kneading ye dough vntill it be leauened. 5 This is the day of our King: the princes haue made him sicke with flagons of wine: he stretcheth out his hand to scorners. 6 For they haue made ready their heart like an ouen whiles they lie in waite: their baker sleepeth all the night: in the morning it burneth as a flame of fire. 7 They are all hote as an ouen, and haue deuoured their iudges: all their Kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth vnto me. 8 Ephraim hath mixt himselfe among the people. Ephraim is as a cake on the hearth not turned. 9 Strangers haue deuoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray heares are here and there vpon him, yet he knoweth not. 10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face, and they doe not returne to the Lord their God, nor seeke him for all this. 11 Ephraim also is like a doue deceiued, without heart: they call to Egypt: they go to Asshur. 12 But when they shall go, I will spred my net vpon them, and drawe them downe as the foules of the heauen: I will chastice them as their congregation hath heard. 13 Wo vnto them: for they haue fled away from me: destruction shalbe vnto them, because they haue transgressed against me: though I haue redeemed them, yet they haue spoken lyes against me. 14 And they haue not cryed vnto me with their hearts, when they houled vpon their beds: they assembled themselues for corne, and wine, and they rebell against me. 15 Though I haue boud and strengthened their arme, yet doe they imagine mischiefe against me. 16 They returne, but not to the most high: they are like a deceitfull bowe: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage of their tongues: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.