I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear them to pieces, then I will carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them!

What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, O Judah? For ¹  your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist; ²  it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew! ³ 

whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets.

The prophet ¹  is a watchman ²  over Ephraim ³  on behalf of God, ⁴  yet traps ⁵  are laid for him along all of his paths; ⁶  animosity rages against him in the land ⁷  of his God.

Even the calf idol ¹  will be carried to Assyria, as tribute for the great king. ²  Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be put to shame because ³  of its wooden idol. ⁴ 

How can I give you up, ¹  O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? I have had a change of heart! ²  All my tender compassions are aroused! ³ 

I cannot carry out ¹  my fierce anger! I cannot totally destroy Ephraim! Because I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you – I will not come in wrath!

Ephraim boasts, ¹  “I am very rich! I have become wealthy! ²  In all that I have done to gain my wealth, ³  no one can accuse me of any offense ⁴  that is actually sinful.” ⁵ 

O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do ¹  with idols anymore! I will answer him and care for him. I am like ²  a luxuriant cypress tree; ³  your fruitfulness comes from me! ⁴ 

I will bend Judah as my bow; I will load the bow with Ephraim, my arrow! ¹  I will stir up your sons, Zion, against yours, Greece, and I will make you, Zion, ²  like a warrior’s sword.

From the sons of Joseph: From the descendants of Ephraim: According to the records of their clans and families, all the males twenty years old or older who could serve in the army were listed by name.

The territory of the tribe of Ephraim by its clans included the following: ¹  The border of their assigned land to the east was Ataroth Addar as far as upper Beth Horon.

I have indeed ¹  heard the people of Israel ²  say mournfully, ‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke. ³  You disciplined us and we learned from it. ⁴  Let us come back to you and we will do so, ⁵  for you are the Lord our God.

The seventh, assigned the seventh month, was Helez the Pelonite, an Ephraimite. His division consisted of 24,000 men.

From Tappuah it went westward to the Valley of Kanah and ended at the sea. This is the land assigned to the tribe of Ephraim ¹  by its clans.

Zikri, an Ephraimite warrior, killed the king’s son Maaseiah, Azrikam, the supervisor of the palace, and Elkanah, the king’s second-in-command.

The Ephraimites will be like warriors and will rejoice as if they had drunk wine. Their children will see it and rejoice; they will celebrate in the things of the Lord.

May the firstborn of his bull bring him honor, and may his horns be those of a wild ox; with them may he gore all peoples, all the far reaches of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, ¹  and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

The border then descended southward to the Valley of Kanah. Ephraim was assigned cities there among the cities of Manasseh, ¹  but the border of Manasseh was north of the valley and ended at the sea.

Eleazar son of Aaron died, and they buried him in Gibeah in the hill country of Ephraim, where his son Phinehas had been assigned land. ¹