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| 1 Hear this, O ye priests, and hearken, O house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king; for unto you pertaineth the judgment; for ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. |
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| 2 And the revolters are gone deep in making slaughter; but I am a rebuker of them all. |
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| 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, O Ephraim, thou hast played the harlot, Israel is defiled. |
Ephraim – Christendom. D22
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| 4 Their doings will not suffer them to turn unto their God; for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not Jehovah. |
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| 5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their iniquity; Judah also shall stumble with them. |
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| 6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah; but they shall not find him: he hath withdrawn himself from them. |
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| 7 They have dealt treacherously against Jehovah; for they have borne strange children: now shall the new moon devour them with their fields. |
Strange children – Members of the nominal church, begotten not of the truth, but of error; partaking, not of the spirit of Christ, but of the spirit of the world. R1009:1
Tares. (Matt. 13:38) R1009:2
Those whom God does not acknowledge as his sons. R1009:1
Now – While in a rejected, spewed-out condition. R1434:1*
A month – 30 years--the divinely set time during which the false shepherds shall be devoured. R1433:6*
"Three shepherds also I cut off in one month." (Zech. 11:8) R1433:3*
Their portions – Possessions. (Leeser) R1434:1*
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| 8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: sound an alarm at Beth-aven; behind thee, O Benjamin. |
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| 9 Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. |
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| 10 The princes of Judah are like them that remove a landmark: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. |
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| 11 Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; because he was content to walk after man’s command. |
Broken in judgment – Made desolate, "broken through punishment." R1434:1*
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| 12 Therefore am I unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. |
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| 13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and sent to a king that should contend: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound. |
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| 14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver. |
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| 15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly. |
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