The manifold sins of Israel, and of their kings, hinder the Lord from
healing them.
7:1. When I would have healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was
discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, for they have committed
falsehood, and the thief is come in to steal, the robber is without.
7:2. And lest they may say in their hearts, that I remember all their
wickedness: their own devices now have beset them about, they have been
done before my face.
7:3. They have made the king glad with their wickedness: and the
princes with their lies.
Made the king glad, etc. . .To please Jeroboam, and their other kings
they have given themselves up to the wicked worship of idols, which are
mere falsehood and lies.
7:4. They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker: the
city rested a little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole
was leavened.
7:5. The day of our king, the princes began to be mad with wine: he
stretched out his hand with scorners.
7:6. Because they have applied their heart like an oven, when he laid
snares for them: he slept all the night baking them, in the morning he
himself was heated as a flaming fire.
7:7. They were all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges:
all their kings have fallen: there is none amongst them that calleth
unto me.
7:8. Ephraim himself is mixed among the nations: Ephraim is become as
bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned.
7:9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knew it not: yea,
grey hairs also are spread about upon him, and he is ignorant of it.
7:10. And the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face: and
they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought him
in all these.
7:11. And Ephraim is become as a dove that is decoyed, not having a
heart: they called upon Egypt, they went to the Assyrians.
7:12. And when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them: I will
bring them down as the fowl of the air, I will strike them as their
congregation hath heard.
7:13. Woe to them, for they have departed from me: they shall be wasted
because they have transgressed against me: and I redeemed them: and
they have spoken lies against me.
7:14. And they have not cried to me with their heart, but they howled
in their beds: they have thought upon wheat and wine, they are departed
from me.
7:15. And I have chastised them, and strengthened their arms: and they
have imagined evil against me.
7:16. They returned, that they might be without yoke: they became like
a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage of
their tongue. This is their derision in the land of Egypt.