God’s threats against the priests, the people, and princes of Israel, for their idolatry.

¹ Hear this, priests, and pay attention, house of Israel, and listen closely, house of the king. For there is a judgment against you, because you have become a trap for those you watched over, and a net stretched out over Tabor.¹

1. 5:1O priests: What is said of priests in this prophecy is chiefly understood of the priests of the kingdom of Israel; who were not true priests of the race of Aaron; but served the calves at Bethel and Dan.(Challoner)

² And you have led astray victims into the depths, though I am the teacher of them all.

³ I know Ephraim, and Israel has not been hidden from me, yet now Ephraim has committed fornication, and Israel has been contaminated.

⁴ They will not set their thoughts to return to their God, for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.

⁵ And the arrogance of Israel will answer to his face. And Israel and Ephraim will fall in their iniquity, and even Judah will fall with them.

⁶ With their flocks and their herds, they will go to seek the Lord, and they will not find him. He has taken himself away from them.

⁷ They have sinned against the Lord. For they have conceived sons that are strangers. Now one month will devour them with all their own.¹

1. 5:7Children that are strangers: That is, aliens from God: and therefore they are threatened with speedy destruction.(Challoner)

⁸ Sound the bugle in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Shout in Bethaven, behind your back, O Benjamin.

⁹ Ephraim will be in desolation on the day of correction, for within the tribes of Israel, I have revealed faith.

¹⁰ The leaders of Judah have become like those who assume the end. I will pour my wrath over them like water.¹²

1. 5:10The phrase ‘assumentes terminum’ is obscure. I interpret it to mean that some of the leaders of the Catholic Church mistakenly assume that the end is near when it is not. Many of them will make this mistake during the first four decades of the 21st century.(Conte)
2. 5:10As they that take up the bound: That is, they that remove the boundary, encroaching on the property of their neighbors: figuratively: going beyond the boundary of the laws of God.(Challoner)

¹¹ Ephraim has been enduring malicious slander and broken judgment, because he began to go after filth.

¹² And I will be like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.

¹³ And Ephraim saw his own weakness, and Judah his chains. And Ephraim went to Assur, and he sent to the Avenging king. But he will not be able to heal you, nor is he able to release you from your chains.¹

1. 5:13Assur is an ancient Assyrian god, and Ultorem is a word meaning ‘avenger,’ but this is a name also, hence the capitalization.(Conte)

¹⁴ For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion’s offspring to the house of Judah. I myself will seize and go forth. I will take away, and there is no one who can rescue.

¹⁵ I will go and return to my place, until you shall grow faint and seek my face.