הושע ז

When I would heal Israel,
The guilt of Ephraim reveals itself
And the wickedness of Samaria.
For they have acted treacherously,
With thieves breaking in
And bands raiding outside.

And they do not consider
That I remembered all their wickedness.
Why, their misdeeds have been all around them,
They have been ever before Me.

In malice they make a king merry,
And officials in treachery.

They commit adultery, all of them,
Like an oven fired by a baker,
Who desists from stoking only
From the kneading of the dough to its leavening.

The day they made our king sick
[And] officials with the poison of wine,
He gave his hand to traitors.

For they approach their ambush
With their hearts like an oven:
Through the night
Their baker has slept;
In the morning, it flares up
Like a blazing fire.

They all get heated like an oven
And devour their rulers—
None of them calls to Me.
All their kings have fallen [by their hand].

Ephraim is among the peoples;
He is rotting away.
Ephraim is like a cake—
Incapable of turning.

Strangers have consumed his strength,
But he has taken no notice;
Also, mold; in contrast to others “gray hairs.” is scattered over him,
But he has taken no notice.

Though Israel’s pride has been humbled
Before his very eyes,
They have not turned back
To their God the ETERNAL One—
Whom they have not sought
Despite everything.

Instead, Ephraim has acted
Like a silly dove with no mind:
They have appealed to Egypt!
They have gone to Assyria!

When they go, I will spread
My net over them,
I will bring them down
Like birds of the sky;
I will chastise them
When I hear their bargaining.

Woe to them
For straying from Me;
Destruction to them
For rebelling against Me!
For I was their Redeemer;
Yet they have plotted treason against Me.

But they did not cry out to Me sincerely
As they lay wailing.
They debauch/yegur “to commit adultery”; for the thought, cf. 4.11. over new grain and new wine,
They are faithless as equivalent to yasoru, from sarar; cf. 9.15 end. to Me.

I braced, I strengthened their arms,
And they plot evil against Me!

They come back;
They have been of no use,
Like a slack bow.
Their officers shall fall by the sword,
Because of the stammering and zughmūm “a stammerer.” of their tongues.
Such shall be [the results of] their jabbering
In the land of Egypt.