8

1“Put the trumpet to your lips!

Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house,

because they have broken my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

2They cry to me, ‘My God, we, Israel, acknowledge you!’

3Israel has cast off that which is good.

The enemy will pursue him.

4They have set up kings, but not by me.

They have made princes, and I didn’t approve.

Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols,

that they may be cut off.

5Let Samaria throw out his calf idol!

My anger burns against them!

How long will it be until they are capable of purity?

6For this is even from Israel!

The workman made it, and it is no God;

indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

7For they sow the wind,

and they will reap the whirlwind.

He has no standing grain.

The stalk will yield no head.

If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.

8Israel is swallowed up.

Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing.

9For they have gone up to Assyria,

like a wild donkey wandering alone.

Ephraim has hired lovers for himself.

10But although they sold themselves among the nations,

I will now gather them;

and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones.

11Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,

they became for him altars for sinning.

12I wrote for him the many things of my law,

but they were regarded as a strange thing.

13As for the sacrifices of my offerings,

they sacrifice meat and eat it,

but Yahweh doesn’t accept them.

Now he will remember their iniquity,

and punish their sins.

They will return to Egypt.

14For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

but I will send a fire on his cities,

and it will devour its fortresses.”

9

1Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations;

for you were unfaithful to your God.

You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.

2The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them,

and the new wine will fail her.

3They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land;

but Ephraim will return to Egypt,

and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.

4They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh,

neither will they be pleasing to him.

Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;

all who eat of it will be polluted;

for their bread will be for their appetite.

It will not come into Yahweh’s house.

5What will you do in the day of solemn assembly,

and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?

6For, behold, when they flee destruction,

Egypt will gather them up.

Memphis will bury them.

Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver.

Thorns will be in their tents.

7The days of visitation have come.

The days of reckoning have come.

Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool,

and the man who is inspired to be insane,

because of the abundance of your sins,

and because your hostility is great.

8A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God.

A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths,

and hostility in the house of his God.

9They have deeply corrupted themselves,

as in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their iniquity.

He will punish them for their sins.

10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness.

I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season;

but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing,

and became abominable like that which they loved.

11As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird.

There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception.

12Though they bring up their children,

yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left.

Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!

13I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place;

but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.

14Give them—Yahweh what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

15“All their wickedness is in Gilgal;

for there I hated them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds, I will drive them out of my house!

I will love them no more.

All their princes are rebels.

16Ephraim is struck.

Their root has dried up.

They will bear no fruit.

Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.”

17My God will cast them away, because they didn’t listen to him;

and they will be wanderers among the nations.

10

1Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces his fruit.

According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars.

As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones.

2Their heart is divided.

Now they will be found guilty.

He will demolish their altars.

He will destroy their sacred stones.

3Surely now they will say, “We have no king; for we don’t fear Yahweh;

and the king, what can he do for us?”

4They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants.

Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

5The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven,

for its people will mourn over it,

along with its priests who rejoiced over it,

for its glory, because it has departed from it.

6It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king.

Ephraim will receive shame,

and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel.

7Samaria and her king float away

like a twig on the water.

8The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed.

The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars.

They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall on us!”

9“Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah.

There they remained.

The battle against the children of iniquity doesn’t overtake them in Gibeah.

10When it is my desire, I will chastise them;

and the nations will be gathered against them

when they are bound to their two transgressions.

11Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh,

so I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck.

I will set a rider on Ephraim.

Judah will plow.

Jacob will break his clods.

12Sow to yourselves in righteousness,

reap according to kindness.

Break up your fallow ground,

for it is time to seek Yahweh,

until he comes and rains righteousness on you.

13You have plowed wickedness.

You have reaped iniquity.

You have eaten the fruit of lies,

for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

14Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people,

and all your fortresses will be destroyed,

as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle.

The mother was dashed in pieces with her children.

15So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness.

At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed.

11

1“When Israel was a child, then I loved him,

and called my son out of Egypt.

2They called to them, so they went from them.

They sacrificed to the Baals,

and burned incense to engraved images.

3Yet I taught Ephraim to walk.

I took them by their arms,

but they didn’t know that I healed them.

4I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love;

and I was to them like those who lift up the yoke on their necks;

and I bent down to him and I fed him.

5“They won’t return into the land of Egypt;

but the Assyrian will be their king,

because they refused to repent.

6The sword will fall on their cities,

and will destroy the bars of their gates,

and will put an end to their plans.

7My people are determined to turn from me.

Though they call to the Most High,

he certainly won’t exalt them.

8“How can I give you up, Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, Israel?

How can I make you like Admah?

How can I make you like Zeboiim?

My heart is turned within me,

my compassion is aroused.

9I will not execute the fierceness of my anger.

I will not return to destroy Ephraim,

for I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you.

I will not come in wrath.

10They will walk after Yahweh,

who will roar like a lion;

for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west.

11They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt,

and like a dove out of the land of Assyria;

and I will settle them in their houses,” says Yahweh.

12Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood,

and the house of Israel with deceit.

Judah still strays from God,

and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

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.

2Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah,

and will punish Jacob according to his ways;

according to his deeds he will repay him.

3In the womb he took his brother by the heel,

and in his manhood he contended with God.

4Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed;

he wept, and made supplication to him.

He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us—

5even Yahweh, the God of Armies.

Yahweh is his name of renown!

6Therefore turn to your God.

Keep kindness and justice,

and wait continually for your God.

7A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand.

He loves to defraud.

8Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich.

I have found myself wealth.

In all my wealth they won’t find in me any iniquity that is sin.”

9“But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt.

I will yet again make you dwell in tents,

as in the days of the solemn feast.

10I have also spoken to the prophets,

and I have multiplied visions;

and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables.

11If Gilead is wicked,

surely they are worthless.

In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls.

Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.

12Jacob fled into the country of Aram.

Israel served to get a wife.

For a wife he tended flocks and herds.

13By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt,

and by a prophet he was preserved.

14Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger.

Therefore his blood will be left on him,

and his Lord will repay his contempt.

13

1When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling.

He exalted himself in Israel,

but when he became guilty through Baal, he died.

2Now they sin more and more,

and have made themselves molten images of their silver,

even idols according to their own understanding,

all of them the work of the craftsmen.

They say of them, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.’

3Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

like the dew that passes away early,

like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor,

and like the smoke out of the chimney.

4“Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt;

and you shall acknowledge no god but me,

and besides me there is no savior.

5I knew you in the wilderness,

in the land of great drought.

6According to their pasture, so were they filled;

they were filled, and their heart was exalted.

Therefore they have forgotten me.

7Therefore I am like a lion to them.

Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path.

8I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs,

and will tear the covering of their heart.

There I will devour them like a lioness.

The wild animal will tear them.

9You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me,

against your helper.

10Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities?

And your judges, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’?

11I have given you a king in my anger,

and have taken him away in my wrath.

12The guilt of Ephraim is stored up.

His sin is stored up.

13The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him.

He is an unwise son,

for when it is time, he doesn’t come to the opening of the womb.

14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol.

I will redeem them from death!

Death, where are your plagues?

Sheol, where is your destruction?

“Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.

15Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come,

the breath of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness;

and his spring will become dry,

and his fountain will be dried up.

He will plunder the storehouse of treasure.

16Samaria will bear her guilt,

for she has rebelled against her God.

They will fall by the sword.

Their infants will be dashed in pieces,

and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”

14

1Israel, return to Yahweh your God;

for you have fallen because of your sin.

2Take words with you, and return to Yahweh.

Tell him, “Forgive all our sins,

and accept that which is good;

so we offer bulls as we vowed of our lips.

3Assyria can’t save us.

We won’t ride on horses;

neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’

for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”

4“I will heal their waywardness.

I will love them freely;

for my anger is turned away from them.

5I will be like the dew to Israel.

He will blossom like the lily,

and send down his roots like Lebanon.

6His branches will spread,

and his beauty will be like the olive tree,

and his fragrance like Lebanon.

7Men will dwell in his shade.

They will revive like the grain,

and blossom like the vine.

Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

8Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols?

I answer, and will take care of him.

I am like a green cypress tree;

from me your fruit is found.”

9Who is wise, that he may understand these things?

Who is prudent, that he may know them?

For the ways of Yahweh are right,

and the righteous walk in them,

but the rebellious stumble in them.