1 | When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was
discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the
thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
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2 | And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their
wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my
face.
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3 | They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their
lies.
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4 | They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth
from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
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5 | In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of
wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
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6 | For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait:
their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming
fire.
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7 | They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their
kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.
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8 | Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not
turned.
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9 | Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray
hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
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10 | And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to
the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.
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11 | Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they
go to Assyria.
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12 | When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down
as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath
heard.
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13 | Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because
they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have
spoken lies against me.
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14 | And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon
their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel
against me.
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15 | Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine
mischief against me.
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16 | They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow:
their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall
be their derision in the land of Egypt.
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