I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute. Israel is defiled.
Parallel translations
- KJV I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and 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 3:2“I have only chosen you of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.”
- Heb 4:13There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
- Hos 13:1When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty in Baal, he died.
- 1 Kgs 14:14–16Moreover Yahweh will raise up a king for himself over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Even now.
- Isa 7:8–9For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people;
- Hos 12:1Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
- Amos 5:12For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins — you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts.
- Hos 6:4“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.
- Hos 8:11Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning.
- Deut 33:17The firstborn of his herd, majesty is his. His horns are the horns of the wild ox. With them he will push all the peoples, to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim. They are the thousands of Manasseh.”
- Isa 7:17Yahweh will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
- Gen 48:19–20His father refused, and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his offspring will become a multitude of nations.”
- Hos 5:11Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; Because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.
- Ezek 23:5–21“Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,
- 1 Kgs 12:26–33Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will return to David’s house.
- Hos 5:13“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.
- Rev 3:15“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot.
- Hos 5:9Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.
- Hos 4:17–18Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!
- Isa 7:5Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying,
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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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