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. |
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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. |
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3:
They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes
with their lies. |
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4: They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who
ceaseth from raising after he hath kneeded the dough, until it be
leavened. |
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5: In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with
bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners. |
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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. |
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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. |
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8: Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a
cake not turned. |
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9: Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not:
yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. |
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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. |
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11: Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to
Egypt, they go to Assyria. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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15: Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they
imagine mischief against me. |
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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. |