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7:1  "When I was healing Israel, Ephraim's sin was uncovered, along with Samaria's wickedness. While they craft lying schemes, the thief invades, and the gang of thieves plunders outside.
7:2  It never occurs to them that I remember all their sin. Now their actions have caught up with them, and they have my attention.
7:3  They please the king with their evil, and the princes with their dishonesty.
7:4  All of them are adulterers— they burn like an oven prepared by the baker, who has ceased stoking it until the dough is leavened.
7:5  "On the king's festival day the princes got drunk from wine, so the king joined the mockers.
7:6  For they have stirred up themselves like an oven as they lie in ambush. Their baker sleeps through the night; in the morning, the oven will be blazing like a fire.
7:7  They all burn like an oven; they have consumed their judges; all their kings have fallen— not even one of them calls on me.
7:8  "Ephraim compromises with the nations; he's a half-baked cake.
7:9  Foreigners have consumed his strength, and he hasn't noticed. Furthermore, his head is sprinkled with gray hair, but he doesn't realize it.
7:10  Israel's arrogance testifies against him; but they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him in all of this.
7:11  "Ephraim is also like a silly dove, lacking sense: They call out to Egypt, and turn toward Assyria.
7:12  When they go, I'll cast my net over them. I'll bring them down, as one shoots birds in the sky. I'll chasten them, as the assembly has already heard.
7:13  Woe to them— because they have run away from me. Ruin to them— because they have sinned against me. Even though I redeemed them, they spread lies against me.
7:14  They will not cry to me from their heart— instead, they wail on their beds. They gather together to eat and drink, turning away from me.
7:15  "Though I have taught them and strengthened their arms, nevertheless they plot evil against me.
7:16  They return—but not to the Most High. They are like a defective weapon. Their princes will fall by the sword because of their raging tongue, and they will be a laughingstock in the land of Egypt."