Chapter 7

  'When I give healing to Israel, Then revealed is the iniquity of Ephraim, And the wickedness of Samaria, For they have wrought falsehood, And a thief doth come in, Stript off hath a troop in the street,  

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  And they do not say to their heart, [That] all their evil I have remembered, Now compassed them have their doings, Over-against My face they have been.  

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  With their wickedness they make glad a king, And with their lies -- princes.  

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  All of them [are] adulterers, Like a burning oven of a baker, He ceaseth from stirring up after kneading the dough, till its leavening.  

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  A day of our king! Princes have polluted themselves [with] the poison of wine, He hath drawn out his hand with scorners.  

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  For they have drawn near, As an oven [is] their heart, In their lying in wait all the night sleep doth their baker, Morning! he is burning as a flaming fire.  

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  All of them are warm as an oven, And they have devoured their judges, All their kings have fallen, There is none calling unto Me among them.  

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  Ephraim! among peoples he mixeth himself, Ephraim hath been a cake unturned.  

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  Devoured have strangers his power, And he hath not known, Also old age hath sprinkled [itself] on him, And he hath not known.  

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  And humbled hath been the excellency of Israel to his face, And they have not turned back unto Jehovah their God, Nor have they sought Him for all this.  

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  And Ephraim is as a simple dove without heart, Egypt they called on -- [to] Asshur they have gone.  

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  When they go I spread over them My net, As the fowl of the heavens I bring them down, I chastise them as their company hath heard.  

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  Wo to them, for they wandered from Me, Destruction to them, for they transgressed against Me, And I -- I ransom them, and they have spoken lies against Me,  

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  And have not cried unto Me with their heart, but howl on their beds, For corn and new wine they assemble themselves, They turn aside against Me.  

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  And I instructed -- I strengthened their arms, And concerning Me they think evil!  

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  They turn back -- not to the Most High, They have been as a deceitful bow, Fall by sword do their princes, From the insolence of their tongue, This [is] their derision in the land of Egypt!  

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