| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1"When I was healing Israel, Ephraim's sin was uncovered, along with Samaria's wickedness. While they craft lying schemes, the thief invades, and the gang of thieves plunders outside. | 1“I want to heal Israel, but its sins are too great. Samaria is filled with liars. Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside! |
| 2It never occurs to them that I remember all their sin. Now their actions have caught up with them, and they have my attention. | 2Its people don’t realize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds are all around them, and I see them all. |
| 3They please the king with their evil, and the princes with their dishonesty. | 3“The people entertain the king with their wickedness, and the princes laugh at their lies. |
| 4All of them are adulterers— they burn like an oven prepared by the baker, who has ceased stoking it until the dough is leavened. | 4They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is kept hot while the baker is kneading the dough. |
| 5"On the king's festival day the princes got drunk from wine, so the king joined the mockers. | 5On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine, carousing with those who mock them. |
| 6For they have stirred up themselves like an oven as they lie in ambush. Their baker sleeps through the night; in the morning, the oven will be blazing like a fire. | 6Their hearts are like an oven blazing with intrigue. Their plot smolders through the night, and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire. |
| 7They all burn like an oven; they have consumed their judges; all their kings have fallen— not even one of them calls on me. | 7Burning like an oven, they consume their leaders. They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me for help. |
| 8"Ephraim compromises with the nations; he's a half-baked cake. | 8“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners, making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake! |
| 9Foreigners have consumed his strength, and he hasn't noticed. Furthermore, his head is sprinkled with gray hair, but he doesn't realize it. | 9Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don’t even know it. Their hair is gray, but they don’t realize they’re old and weak. |
| 10Israel's arrogance testifies against him; but they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him in all of this. | 10Their arrogance testifies against them, yet they don’t return to the LORD their God or even try to find him. |
| 11"Ephraim is also like a silly dove, lacking sense: They call out to Egypt, and turn toward Assyria. | 11“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help. |
| 12When they go, I'll cast my net over them. I'll bring them down, as one shoots birds in the sky. I'll chasten them, as the assembly has already heard. | 12But as they fly about, I will throw my net over them and bring them down like a bird from the sky. I will punish them for all the evil they do. |
| 13Woe to them— because they have run away from me. Ruin to them— because they have sinned against me. Even though I redeemed them, they spread lies against me. | 13“What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me! Let them die, for they have rebelled against me. I wanted to redeem them, but they have told lies about me. |
| 14They will not cry to me from their heart— instead, they wail on their beds. They gather together to eat and drink, turning away from me. | 14They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from me. |
| 15"Though I have taught them and strengthened their arms, nevertheless they plot evil against me. | 15I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot evil against me. |
| 16They return—but not to the Most High. They are like a defective weapon. Their princes will fall by the sword because of their raging tongue, and they will be a laughingstock in the land of Egypt." | 16They look everywhere except to the Most High. They are as useless as a crooked bow. Their leaders will be killed by their enemies because of their insolence toward me. Then the people of Egypt will laugh at them. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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