| Chapter 7 |
| 1 | When I would have healed
Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of
Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of
robbers spoileth without. |
|
2 | And they consider not in their hearts
that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them
about; they are before my face. |
| 3 | They make the king glad with
their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. |
| 4 | They are all
adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he
hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. |
| 5 | In the day of
our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out
his hand with scorners. |
| 6 | For they have made ready their heart like an
oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the
morning it burneth as a flaming fire. |
| 7 | They are all hot as an oven,
and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among
them that calleth unto me. |
|
8 | Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among
the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. |
|
9 | Strangers have devoured his
strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him,
yet he knoweth not. |
| 10 | And the pride of Israel testifieth to his
face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all
this. |
| 11 |
Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to
Egypt, they go to Assyria. |
|
12 | When they shall go, I will spread my
net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will
chastise them, as their congregation hath heard. |
| 13 | Woe unto
them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have
transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies
against me. |
|
14 | And they have not cried unto me with their heart,
when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine,
and they rebel against me. |
|
15 | Though I have bound and strengthened
their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. |
| 16 | They return,
but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall
fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in
the land of Egypt. |
