1The Lord said:
‘I wanted to heal Israel,
but then I saw the people of Ephraim
doing a lot of sins.
I also saw how bad the people of Samaria are.
They tell lies and steal and
rob each other's things in the streets.
2They think I don't know how bad they are,
but I know everything they do.
3The king and his officials are glad
that their people are bad and tell lies.
4All of them commit_adultery.
They are as hot as an oven that stays hot
when the baker is waiting for the bread
to rise after he has made the fire big enough.
5On the day their king celebrated a feast,
the officials became very drunk.
The people who had to help the king
were sitting and laughing.
6They are like coals in an oven
that stays warm in the night
and starts burning again the next morning.
They wait for the right time to kill their king.
7They are like the fire in an oven
that keeps on burning.
They kill their leaders. All their kings die,
but they do not ask Me to help them.
8The people of Ephraim
are living among other nations,
and those people do with the people of Ephraim
what they want to do.
Ephraim has become worthless.
9People from other nations
rule over them and make them weak,
but they do not realise it.
They are like bread
that has become old and grey.
10The Israelites
thought they were important,
but they are not important anymore.
They did not come back to the Lord their God.
They suffered badly,
but they did not ask the Lord
what they should do.
11The people of Ephraim
are like a foolish dove.
They asked the people of Egypt to help them,
but then they flew to Assyria.
12I will catch them like people catch birds.
I will throw a net over them
and catch them when they want to fly.
13They will suffer
because they have fled from Me.
They will have a lot of trouble
because they did not want to listen to Me.
I wanted to save them, but they told Me lies.
14They prayed and asked Me to help them,
but they were false.
They lie down on their beds and cry
and they cut themselves with knives,
because they think Baal
will give them wheat and wine.
They don't serve Me anymore.
15It was I who raised them
and taught them what they know.
It was I who made them strong,
but they make plans against Me.
16They go to gods that can not help.
They are like a bow that breaks
when you want to shoot an arrow.
Their officials will die in war,
because they have cursed themselves.
The Egyptians will laugh at them.’
