³ “The people entertain the king with their wickedness,
    and the princes laugh at their lies.
⁴ They are all adulterers,
    always aflame with lust.
They are like an oven that is kept hot
    while the baker is kneading the dough.
⁵ On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,
    carousing with those who mock them.
⁶ Their hearts are like an oven
    blazing with intrigue.
Their plot smolders^[b] through the night,
    and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.
⁷ Burning like an oven,
    they consume their leaders.
They kill their kings one after another,
    and no one cries to me for help.

⁸ “The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,
    making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!
⁹ Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength,
    but they don’t even know it.
Their hair is gray,
    but they don’t realize they’re old and weak.
¹⁰ Their arrogance testifies against them,
    yet they don’t return to the Lord their God
    or even try to find him.

¹¹ “The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves,
    first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.
¹² But as they fly about,
    I will throw my net over them
and bring them down like a bird from the sky.
    I will punish them for all the evil they do.^[c]

¹³ “What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me!
    Let them die, for they have rebelled against me.
I wanted to redeem them,
    but they have told lies about me.
¹⁴ They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.
    Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.
They cut themselves,^[d] begging foreign gods for grain and new wine,
    and they turn away from me.
¹⁵ I trained them and made them strong,
    yet now they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They look everywhere except to the Most High.
    They are as useless as a crooked bow.
Their leaders will be killed by their enemies
    because of their insolence toward me.
Then the people of Egypt
    will laugh at them.