I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.
Parallel translations
- WEB I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute. Israel is defiled.
- BSB I know all about Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me. For now, O Ephraim, you have turned to prostitution; Israel is defiled.
- NKJV I know Ephraim, And Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled.
- NASB I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; Because now, Ephraim, you have been unfaithful, Israel has defiled itself.
- NLT I know what you are like, O Ephraim. You cannot hide yourself from me, O Israel. You have left me as a prostitute leaves her husband; you are utterly defiled.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God declares that He fully knows Ephraim and Israel, whose unfaithfulness is plain before Him. Nothing about their sin is hidden from God.
Overview
Ephraim and Israel cannot conceal their idolatry, here called playing the prostitute, from the all-knowing God. Their defilement is exposed before the One who sees every heart. The verse underscores the futility of hiding sin from God and grounds the coming judgment in His perfect knowledge, a sober reminder that all things are open before the One to whom we must give account.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Amos 3:2You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
- Heb 4:13Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
- Hos 13:1When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
- 1 Kgs 14:14–16Moreover the LORD shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now.
- Isa 7:8–9For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.
- Hos 12:1Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
- Amos 5:12For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
- Hos 6:4O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
- Hos 8:11Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.
- Deut 33:17His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.
- Isa 7:17The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
- Gen 48:19–20And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
- Hos 5:11Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.
- Ezek 23:5–21And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
- 1 Kgs 12:26–33And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
- Hos 5:13When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.
- Rev 3:15I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
- Hos 5:9Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.
- Hos 4:17–18Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
- Isa 7:5Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 5:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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