New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 “Hear this, you priests. Pay attention, you leaders of Israel. Listen, you members of the royal family. Judgment has been handed down against you. For you have led the people into a snare by worshiping the idols at Mizpah and Tabor.
1
"Listen to this, priests! Attention, people of Israel! Royal family - all ears! You're in charge of justice around here. But what have you done? Exploited people at Mizpah, ripped them off on Tabor,
2 You have dug a deep pit to trap them at Acacia Grove. But I will settle with you for what you have done.
2
Victimized them at Shittim. I'm going to punish the lot of you.
3 I know what you are like, O Ephraim. You cannot hide yourself from me, O Israel. You have left me as a prostitute leaves her husband; you are utterly defiled.
3
"I know you, Ephraim, inside and out. Yes, Israel, I see right through you! Ephraim, you've played your sex-and-religion games long enough. All Israel is thoroughly polluted.
4 Your deeds won’t let you return to your God. You are a prostitute through and through, and you do not know the LORD .
4
They couldn't turn to God if they wanted to. Their evil life is a bad habit. Every breath they take is a whore's breath. They wouldn't recognize God if they saw me.
5 “The arrogance of Israel testifies against her; Israel and Ephraim will stumble under their load of guilt. Judah, too, will fall with them.
5
"Bloated by arrogance, big as a house, they're a public disgrace, The lot of them - Israel, Ephraim, Judah - lurching and weaving down their guilty streets.
6 When they come with their flocks and herds to offer sacrifices to the LORD, they will not find him, because he has withdrawn from them.
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When they decide to get their lives together and go off looking for God once again, They'll find it's too late. I, God, will be long gone.
7 They have betrayed the honor of the LORD, bearing children that are not his. Now their false religion will devour them along with their wealth.
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They've played fast and loose with me for too long, filling the country with their bastard offspring. A plague of locusts will devastate their violated land.
8 “Sound the alarm in Gibeah! Blow the trumpet in Ramah! Raise the battle cry in Beth-aven ! Lead on into battle, O warriors of Benjamin!
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"Blow the ram's horn shofar in Gibeah, the bugle in Ramah! Signal the invasion of Sin City! Scare the daylights out of Benjamin!
9 One thing is certain, Israel : On your day of punishment, you will become a heap of rubble.
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Ephraim will be left wasted, a lifeless moonscape. I'm telling it straight, the unvarnished truth, to the tribes of Israel.
10 “The leaders of Judah have become like thieves. So I will pour my anger on them like a waterfall.
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"Israel's rulers are crooks and thieves, cheating the people of their land, And I'm angry, good and angry. Every inch of their bodies is going to feel my anger.
11 The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment because they are determined to worship idols.
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"Brutal Ephraim is himself brutalized - a taste of his own medicine! He was so determined to do it his own worthless way.
12 I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool. I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.
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Therefore I'm pus to Ephraim, dry rot in the house of Judah.
13 “When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria— to the great king there— but he could neither help nor cure them.
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"When Ephraim saw he was sick and Judah saw his pus-filled sores, Ephraim went running to Assyria, went for help to the big king. But he can't heal you. He can't cure your oozing sores.
14 I will be like a lion to Israel, like a strong young lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces! I will carry them off, and no one will be left to rescue them.
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"I'm a grizzly charging Ephraim, a grizzly with cubs charging Judah. I'll rip them to pieces - yes, I will! No one can stop me now. I'll drag them off. No one can help them.
15 Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and turn to me. For as soon as trouble comes, they will earnestly search for me.”
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Then I'll go back to where I came from until they come to their senses. When they finally hit rock bottom, maybe they'll come looking for me."
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.