CHAPTER 7
When I would have restored the fortunes of my people,
The guilt of Ephraim was revealed,
the wickedness of Samaria:
They practiced falsehood.
Thieves break in,
bandits roam outside.
that I remember all their wickedness.a
Now their crimes surround them,
present to my sight.b
Israel’s Domestic Politics*
the princes too, with their treacherous deeds.
like a blazing oven,
Which the baker quits stoking,
after the dough’s kneading until its rising.
they made the princes sick with poisoned wine;
he extended his hand to the scoffers.
with their hearts like an oven.
All the night their anger sleeps;
in the morning it flares like a blazing fire.
and consume their rulers.
All their kings have fallen;
none of them calls upon me.
Israel’s Foreign Politics
Ephraim is an unturned cake.
but he does not know it;c
Gray hairs are strewn on his head,
but he takes no notice of it.
yet they do not return to the LORD, their God,
nor seek him, despite all this.d
silly and senseless;
They call upon Egypt,
they go to Assyria.
like birds in the air I will bring them down.e
I will chastise them when I hear of their assembly.
Ruin to them, for they have rebelled against me!
Though I wished to redeem them,
they spoke lies against me.
when they wailed upon their beds;
For wheat and wine they lacerated themselves;*
they rebelled against me.
yet they devised evil against me.
they have been like a treacherous bow.f
Their princes shall fall by the sword
because of the insolence of their tongues;
thus they shall be mocked in the land of Egypt.
* [7:3–7] This passage perhaps refers to a conspiracy at the royal court. Between the death of Jeroboam II (743 B.C.) and the fall of Samaria (722/721), nearly all the kings were murdered (2 Kgs 15:10, 14, 25, 30).
* [7:4] Adulterers: the unfaithful nobles who kill the king. Their passion is compared to the fire of the oven. The point of the metaphor is that, like this oven whose fire is always ready to blaze up again, the conspirators are always ready for rebellion.
* [7:8] Is mixed with the nations: the people reject exclusive allegiance to the Lord, and they now try to find their salvation in alliances with foreign nations. An unturned cake: burnt on one side, but not baked at all on the other, and thus worthless.
* [7:14] Lacerated themselves: a ritual to obtain a good harvest from Baal (2:7–10; 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5). This practice was forbidden (Lv 19:28; Dt 14:1).
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