Hosea 5:1-7

God will punish Israel and Judah for their sins

1 ‘Listen to this, you priests! Listen carefully, you Israelites! Listen, you people of the royal family! You are guilty and you deserve punishment. You have caused trouble for people with your trap at Mizpah. You have caught people in your net at Tabor mountain. 2 People have turned against me and they have murdered many people. So I will warn them all and I will punish them.

5:1The leaders of Israel have caused trouble for their people. They have led them to worship false gods. It is like they have caught the people in a trap or a net.

3 I know what the people of Ephraim are like. The Israelites cannot hide their sins from me. You are no better than prostitutes! You can no longer serve me as my people. 4 Yes, the sins of the Israelites do not allow them to return to me, the Lord their God. They are not faithful to me and they love to worship idols. They do not want to know me. 5 The Israelites are proud of what they do, and that shows that they are guilty. Their sins cause them to fall into great trouble. That will happen to the people of Israel and Ephraim. And the people of Judah will fall with them.

5:3Ephraim was the name that people used for the northern kingdom of Israel.

6 They take their sheep and cows to offer as sacrifices to the Lord. They want the Lord to help them, but he does not answer them. They cannot find him because he has gone away from them. 7 They have turned against the Lord. Their children do not belong to him. They enjoy the new moon feast. But that will soon destroy them and the crops in their fields.’