Ephraim Will Not Come Home
Ephraim is a half-baked cake, a silly dove flapping between Egypt and Assyria, an oven whose fire smoulders all night. Kings fall one after another and nobody calls on our Father. He says he would redeem them, but they wail on their beds instead of turning.
7 1Whenever I try to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is uncovered, and the evils of Samaria; for they practice falsehood—the thief breaks in, the raiders plunder outside. 2But they do not say in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face.
3By their evil they make the king glad, and the princes by their lies. 4They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker, who stops stirring the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. 5On the day of our king the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine; he joined hands with mockers. 6For they draw near with hearts burning like an oven as they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders, and in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. 7They are all hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen; none of them calls upon me.
8Ephraim mixes himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over. 9Strangers devour his strength, and he does not know it; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he does not know it. 10The pride of Israel testifies to his face, yet they do not return to their Father, nor seek him, in all of this.
11Ephraim has become like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria. 12As they go, I will spread my net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will discipline them as their assembly was warned.
13Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. 14They do not cry to me from their heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and new wine they gash themselves; they turn away from me. a a v14 Cutting the body was part of the pagan fertility rites of Canaan, performed to beg the storm-gods for grain and wine — the opposite of crying out to the Father from the heart. 15Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. 16They turn, but not upward; they have become like a slack bow. Their princes will fall by the sword for the insolence of their tongue; this will make them a laughingstock in the land of Egypt.
