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 snareby worshiping the idols at Mizpah and 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.
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.
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.
5. “The arrogance of Israel testifies against her;Israel and Ephraim will stumble under their load of guilt.Judah, too, will fall with them.
6. When they come with their flocks and herdsto offer sacrifices to the lord,they will not find him,because he has withdrawn from them.
7. They have betrayed the honor of the lord,bearing children that are not his.Now their false religion will devour themalong with their wealth.
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!
9. One thing is certain, Israel:On your day of punishment,you will become a heap of rubble.