The Hebrew Prophets

And I am as a moth to Ephraim, And as a rotten thing to the house of Judah.

And see doth Ephraim his sickness, and Judah his wound, And Ephraim goeth unto Asshur, And sendeth unto a warlike king, And he is not able to give healing to you, Nor doth he remove from you a scar.

For I am as a lion to Ephraim, And as a young lion to the house of Judah, I--I tear and go, I bear away, and there is no deliverer.

I go--I turn back unto My place, Till that they are desolate, and have sought My face. In their distress they do seek Me speedily!'

`Come, and we turn back unto Jehovah, For He hath torn, and He doth heal us, He doth smite, and He bindeth us up.

He doth revive us after two days, In the third day He doth raise us up, And we live before Him.

And we know--we pursue to know Jehovah, As the dawn prepared is His going forth, And He cometh in as a shower to us, As gathered rain--sprinkling earth.'

What do I do to thee, O Ephraim? What do I do to thee, O Judah? Your goodness is as a cloud of the morning, And as dew rising early--going.

Therefore I have hewed by prophets, I have slain them by sayings of My mouth, And My judgments to the light goeth forth.

For kindness I desired, and not sacrifice, And a knowledge of God above burnt-offerings.

And they, as Adam, transgressed a covenant, There they dealt treacherously against me.

Gilead is a city of workers of iniquity, Slippery from blood.

And as bands do wait for a man, A company of priests do murder--the way to Shechem, For wickedness they have done.

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing, There is the whoredom of Ephraim--defiled is Israel.

Also, O Judah, appointed is a harvest to thee, In My turning back to the captivity of My people!

`When I give healing to Israel, Then revealed is the iniquity of Ephraim, And the wickedness of Samaria, For they have wrought falsehood, And a thief doth come in, Stript off hath a troop in the street,

And they do not say to their heart, That all their evil I have remembered, Now compassed them have their doings, Over-against My face they have been.

With their wickedness they make glad a king, And with their lies--princes.

All of them are adulterers, Like a burning oven of a baker, He ceaseth from stirring up after kneading the dough, till its leavening.

A day of our king! Princes have polluted themselves with the poison of wine, He hath drawn out his hand with scorners.

For they have drawn near, As an oven is their heart, In their lying in wait all the night sleep doth their baker, Morning! he is burning as a flaming fire.

All of them are warm as an oven, And they have devoured their judges, All their kings have fallen, There is none calling unto Me among them.

Ephraim! among peoples he mixeth himself, Ephraim hath been a cake unturned.

Devoured have strangers his power, And he hath not known, Also old age hath sprinkled itself on him, And he hath not known.

And humbled hath been the excellency of Israel to his face, And they have not turned back unto Jehovah their God, Nor have they sought Him for all this.