1 As I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim and the evils of Samaria are revealed, for they have practiced falsehood {sheqer: deliberate deception}; and a thief comes, and a band {gedud: raiding party} plunders outside.
2 And they do not say in their heart that I have remembered all their evil {ra-atam: total evil}; now their deeds have surrounded them, and they have stood before My face {panai: presence}.
3 They gladden the king {melekh: royal ruler} with their evil, and they gladden the princes {sarim: court officials} with their lies.
4 All of them are adulterers {mena'afim: those unfaithful in covenant}; they are like an oven burning from the baker, who ceases from stirring and kneading the dough {batsek: unbaked mixture} until it is leavened.
5 When the day of our king arrived, the princes were sickened by wine’s heat {chamat: burning intoxication}; he drew out his hand toward scoffers {lotzetzim: arrogant ridiculers}.
6 For they make their heart {libbam: inner resolve} ready like an oven while they lie in ambush {b'arbam: hidden waiting}; all the night their baker sleeps, in the morning it is burning like a flame of fire.
7 All of them are heating up like an oven {tanur: stoked furnace} and they devour their judges; all their kings have fallen; there is no one among them who calls to Me {YHWH, Their True King}.
8 Ephraim {eprayim: northern kingdom} has blended {yitbolal: self-diluting} himself in among the peoples; Ephraim has become a cake left unturned.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength {kocho: enduring vigor}, but he did not know; even gray hair {seivah: public warning} is sprinkled on him, and he did not know.
10 Israel’s pride {geon: self-exalting spirit} bears witness against him, and they have not returned to the LORD their God {YHWH Eloheihem, Covenant Restorer}, and they have not sought Him in all this.
11 Ephraim became like a dove {yonah: helpless bird}, naive and without heart {lev: sound judgment}; they called to Egypt, and they went to Assyria.
12 When they go, I {YHWH, Ensnaring Judge} will spread my net {rishti: hunting net} over them; like birds of the heavens I will bring them down; I will chastise them in line with what is heard in their assembly.
13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me; destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me. I {anokhi: emphatic I} would redeem them, but they have spoken lies {kezavim: falsehoods} against Me.
14 And they did not cry out {za'aku: urgent plea} to Me with their heart, but they wail on their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves {yitgoreru: ritual self-infliction}, and they turn away from Me.
15 Yet I {waʾani: emphatic contrast} disciplined and strengthened their arms {zeroa: strength symbol}, but against Me they plan evil.
16 They turn back, yet they do not rise upward {al: toward God}; they have become like a treacherous bow {qeshet: unreliable weapon}. Their princes will fall by the sword, from the fury of their tongue; this is their derision in the land of Egypt.