| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 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! | 1whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets. |
| 2Its people don’t realize that I am watching them. Their sinful deeds are all around them, and I see them all. | 2They do not realize that I remember all of their wicked deeds. Their evil deeds have now surrounded them; their sinful deeds are always before me. |
| 3“The people entertain the king with their wickedness, and the princes laugh at their lies. | 3The royal advisers delight the king with their evil schemes, the princes make him glad with their lies. |
| 4They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is kept hot while the baker is kneading the dough. | 4They are all like bakers, they are like a smoldering oven; they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire until the kneaded dough is ready for baking. |
| 5On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine, carousing with those who mock them. | 5At the celebration of their king, his princes become inflamed with wine; they conspire with evildoers. |
| 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. | 6They approach him, all the while plotting against him. Their hearts are like an oven; their anger smolders all night long, but in the morning it bursts into a flaming fire. |
| 7Burning like an oven, they consume their leaders. They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me for help. | 7All of them are blazing like an oven; they devour their rulers. All of their kings fall--and none of them call on me! |
| 8“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners, making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake! | 8Ephraim has mixed itself like flour among the nations; Ephraim is like a ruined cake of bread that is scorched on one side. |
| 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. | 9Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced, but he does not recognize it! His head is filled with gray hair, but he does not realize it! |
| 10Their arrogance testifies against them, yet they don’t return to the LORD their God or even try to find him. | 10The arrogance of Israel testifies against him, yet they refuse to return to the LORD their God! In spite of all this they refuse to seek him! |
| 11“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help. | 11Ephraim has been like a dove, easily deceived and lacking discernment. They called to Egypt for help; they turned to Assyria for protection. |
| 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. | 12I will throw my bird net over them while they are flying, I will bring them down like birds in the sky; I will discipline them when I hear them flocking together. |
| 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. | 13Woe to them! For they have fled from me! Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me! I want to deliver them, but they have lied to 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. | 14They do not pray to me, but howl in distress on their beds; They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from me. |
| 15I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot evil against me. | 15Although I trained and strengthened them, they plot evil against me! |
| 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. | 16They turn to Baal; they are like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because their prayers to Baal have made me angry. So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt. |
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