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| 1 'Hear this, O priests, and attend, O house of Israel, And, O house of the king, give ear, For the judgment [is] for you, For, a snare ye have been on Mizpah, And a net spread out on Tabor. |
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| 2 And to slaughter sinners have gone deep, And I [am] a fetter to them all. |
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| 3 I have known Ephraim, And Israel hath not been hid from me, For now thou hast gone a-whoring, Ephraim, Defiled is Israel. |
Ephraim – Christendom. D22
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| 4 They give not up their habitual doings, To turn back unto their God, For a spirit of whoredoms [is] in their midst, And Jehovah they have not known. |
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| 5 And humbled hath been the excellency of Israel to his face, And Israel and Ephraim stumble by their iniquity, Stumbled also hath Judah with them. |
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| 6 With their flock and with their herd, They go to seek Jehovah, and do not find, He hath withdrawn from them. |
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| 7 Against Jehovah they dealt treacherously, For strange sons they have begotten, Now consume them doth a month [with] their portions. |
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 a cornet in Gibeah, a trumpet in Ramah, Shout, O Beth-Aven, after thee, O Benjamin. |
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| 9 Ephraim is for a desolation in a day of reproof, Among the tribes of Israel I have made known a sure thing. |
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| 10 Princes of Judah have been as those removing a border, On them I do pour out as water My wrath. |
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| 11 Oppressed is Ephraim, broken in judgment, When he pleased he went after the command. |
Broken in judgment – Made desolate, "broken through punishment." R1434:1*
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| 12 And I [am] as a moth to Ephraim, And as a rotten thing to the house of Judah. |
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| 13 And see doth Ephraim his sickness, and Judah his wound, And Ephraim goeth unto Asshur, And sendeth unto a warlike king, And he is not able to give healing to you, Nor doth he remove from you a scar. |
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| 14 For I [am] as a lion to Ephraim, And as a young lion to the house of Judah, I I tear and go, I bear away, and there is no deliverer. |
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| 15 I go I turn back unto My place, Till that they are desolate, and have sought My face. In their distress they do seek Me speedily!' |
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