And we shall become obedient.
His appearance is as sure as daybreak,
And He will come to us like rain,
Like latter rain that refreshesb the earth.”
4What can I do for you, Ephraim,
What can I do for you, Judah,c
When your goodness is like morning clouds,
Like dew so early gone?
5That is why I have hewn down d-the prophets,-d
Have slain them with the words of My mouth:
e-
And the day that dawned [brought on] your punishment.-e
6For I desire goodness, not sacrifice;
Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings.
7fBut they, to a man, have transgressed the Covenant.
This is where they have been false to Me:
8Gilead is a city of evildoers,
Tracked up with blood.
9The gang of priests is
Like the ambuscade of bandits
Who murder on the road to Shechem,
For they have encouragedg depravity.
10In h-the House of Israel-h I have seen
A horrible thing;
Ephraim has fornicated there,
Israel has defiled himself.
11i-(Even Judah has reaped a harvest of you!)-i
7
When I would restore My people’s fortunes,
1When I would heal Israel,
The guilt of Ephraim reveals itself
And the wickedness of Samaria.
For they have acted treacherously,
With thieves breaking in
And bands raiding outside.
2And they do not consider
That I remembered all their wickedness.
Why, their misdeeds have been all around them,a
They have been ever before Me.
3bIn malice they make a king merry,
And officials in treachery.
4They c-commit adultery,-c all of them.
Like an oven fired by a baker,
Who desists from stoking only
From the kneading of the dough to its leavening.
5The day they made our king sick
[And] officials with the poison of wine,
d-
He gave his hand to traitors.-d
6e-For they approach their ambush
With their hearts like an oven:-e
Through the night
Their bakerc has slept;
In the morning, it flares up
Like a blazing fire.
7They all get heated like an oven
And devour their rulers—
None of them calls to Me.
All their kings have fallen [by their hand].
8e-Ephraim is among the peoples;
He is rotting away.
Ephraim is like a cake—
Incapable of turning.-e
9Strangers have consumed his strength,
But he has taken no notice;
Also, moldf is scattered over him,
But he has taken no notice.
10Though Israel’s pride has been humbled
Before his very eyes,
They have not turned back
To their God the LORD;
They have not sought Him
In spite of everything.
11Instead, Ephraim has acted
Like a silly dove with no mind:
They have appealed to Egypt!
They have gone to Assyria!
12When they go, I will spread
My net over them,
I will bring them down
Like birds of the sky;
e-
I will chastise them
When I hear their bargaining.-e
13Woe to them
For straying from Me;
Destruction to them
For rebelling against Me!
For I was their Redeemer;
Yet they have plotted treason against Me.
14gBut they did not cry out to Me sincerely
As theyh-lay wailing.-h
They debauchi over new grain and new wine,
They are faithlessj to Me.
15I braced, I strengthened their arms,
And they plot evil against Me!
16They come back;
They have been of no use,e
Like a slack bow.
Their officers shall fall by the sword,
Because of the stammeringk of their tongues.
Such shall be [the results of] their jabberingl
In the land of Egypt.
8
[Put] a ram’s horn to your mouth—
a-
Like an eagle-a over the House of b-the LORD;-b
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And been faithless to My teaching.
2Israel cries out to Me,
“O my God, we are devoted to You.”c
3Israel rejects what is good;
d-
An enemy shall pursue him.-d
4They have made kings,
But not with My sanction;
They have made officers,
But not of My choice.
Of their silver and gold
They have made themselves images,
To their own undoing.
5e-He rejects-e your calf, Samaria!
I am furious with them!
Will they never be capable of f-purity?
6For it was Israel’s doing;-f
It was only made by a joiner,
It is not a god.
No, the calf of Samaria shall be
Reduced to splinters!
7They sow wind,
And they shall reap whirlwind—
Standing stalks devoid of ears
And yielding no flour.
If they do yield any,
Strangers shall devour it.
8Israel is bewildered;g
They have now become among the nations
Like an unwanted vessel,
9[Like] a lonely wild ass.
For they have gone up to Assyria,
h-
Ephraim has-h courted friendship.
10And while they are courting among the nations,
-i
There I will hold them fast;-i a-And they shall begin to diminish in number
From the burden of king [and] officers.a-
11For Ephraim has multiplied altars—for guilt;
His altars have redounded to his guilt:
12The many teachings I wrote for him
Have been treated as something alien.
13a-When they present sacrifices to Me,-a
It is but flesh for them to eat:
The LORD has not accepted them.
Behold, He remembers their iniquity,
He will punish their sins:
Back to Egypt with them!
14Israel has ignored his Maker
And built temples
(And Judah has fortified many cities).
So I will set fire to his cities,
And it shall consume their fortresses.
9
Rejoice not, O Israel,
As other peoples exult;
For you have strayed
Away from your God:
a-
You have loved a harlot’s fee
By every threshing floor of new grain.
2Threshing floor and winepress
Shall not join them,
And the new wine shall betray her.-a
3They shall not be able to remain
In the land of the LORD.
But Ephraim shall return to Egypt
And shall eat unclean food in Assyria.b
4It shall be for them like the food of mourners,
All who partake of which are defiled.
They will offer no libations of wine to the LORD,
And no sacrifices of theirs will be pleasing to Him;
But their food will be only for their hunger,
It shall not come into the House of the LORD.
5What will you do about feast days,
About the festivals of the LORD?
6Behold, they have gone -cfrom destruction-c
[With] the silver they treasure.
Egypt shall -dhold them fast,-d
Mophe shall receive them in burial.
Weeds are their heirs;
Prickly shrubs occupy their [old] homes.
7The days of punishment have come
For your heavy guilt;
The days of requital have come—
Let Israel know it!
The prophet was distraught,
The inspired man driven mad
By constant harassment.
8Ephraim watches forf-my God.
As for the prophet,-f
Fowlers’ snares are on all his paths,
Harassment in the House of his God.
9They have been as grievously corrupt
As in the days of Gibeah;g
He will remember their iniquity,
He will punish their sins.
10I found Israel [as pleasing]
As grapes in the wilderness;
Your fathers seemed to Me
h-
Like the first fig to ripen on a fig tree.-h
But when they came to Baal-peor,
They turned aside to shamefulness;i
j-
Then they became as detested
As they had been loved.-j
11From birth, from the womb, from conception
Ephraim’s glory shall be
Like birds that fly away.k
12Even if they rear their infants,
I will bereave them of men.
l-
Woe to them indeed
When I turn away from them!-l
13j-It shall go with Ephraim
As I have seen it go with Tyre,
Which was planted in a meadow;-j
Ephraim too must bring out
His children to slayers.
14Give them, O LORD—give them what?
Give them a womb that miscarries,
And shriveled breasts!
15All their misfortune [began] at Gilgal,
For there I disowned them.m
For their evil deeds
I will drive them out of My House.
I will accept them no more;
n-
All their officials are-n disloyal.
16kEphraimo is stricken,
Their stock is withered;
They can produce no fruit.
Even if they do bear children,
I will slay their cherished offspring.
17My God rejects them
Because they have not obeyed Him,
And they shall go wandering
Among the nations.
10
Israel is a ravaged vine
And its fruit is like it.
When his fruit was plentiful,
He made altars aplenty;
When his land was bountiful,
Cult pillars abounded.
2Now that his boughsa are broken up,
He feels his guilt;
He himself pulls apart his altars,
Smashes his pillars.
3Truly, now they say,
“We have no king;
For, since we do not fear the LORD,
What can a king do to us?”
4So they conclude agreements and make covenants
With false oaths,
And justiceb-degenerates into poison weeds,
Breaking out-b on the furrows of the fields.
5The inhabitants of Samaria fear
For the calf of Beth-aven;c
Indeed, its people and priestlings,
d-
Whose joy it once was,-d
Mourn over it for the glory
That is departed from it.
6It too shall be brought to Assyria
As tribute to a patrone king;
Ephraim shall be chagrined,
Israel shall be dismayed
Because of his plans.f
7Samaria’s monarchygis vanishing
Like foam upon water,
8Ruined shall be the shrines of [Beth-]aven,c
That sin of Israel.
Thorns and thistles
Shall grow on their altars.
They shall call to the mountains, “Bury us!”
To the hills, “Fall on us!”
9You have sinned more, O Israel,
Than in the days of Gibeah.h
d-
There they stand [as] at Gibeah!
Shall they not be overtaken
By a war upon scoundrels
10As peoples gather against them?-d
When I chose [them], I broke them in,
Harnessing them for two furrows.
11Ephraim became a trained heifer,
But preferred to thresh;
I i-placed a yoke
Upon her sleek neck.-i
I will make Ephraim j-do advance plowing;-j
Judahk shall do [main] plowing!
Jacob shall do final plowing!
12“Sow righteousness for yourselves;
Reap l-the fruits of-l goodness;
Break for yourselves betimes fresh ground
Of seeking the LORD,
So that you may obtain m-a teacher-m of righteousness.”
13You have plowed wickedness,
You have reaped iniquity—
[And] you shall eat the fruits of treachery—
Because you relied on your way,n
On your host of warriors.
14But the din of war shall arise in your own people,
And all your fortresses shall be ravaged
As Beth-arbel was ravaged by Shalmano
On a day of battle,
When mothers and babes were dashed to death together.
15This p-is what Bethel has done to you-p
For your horrible wickedness:
q-
At dawn-q shall Israel’s monarchy
Utterly perish.
11
I fell in love with Israel
When he was still a child;
And I have called [him] My son
Ever since Egypt.
2aThus were they called,
But they went their own way;
They sacrifice to Baalimb
And offer to carved images.
3I have pampered Ephraim,
Taking them in Myc arms;
But they have ignored
My healing care.
4I drew them with human ties,
With cords of love;
But I seemed to them as one
Who imposed a yoke on their jaws,
Though I was offering them food.
5No!
They return to the land of Egypt,
And Assyria is their king.
Because they refuse to repent,
6A sword shall descend upon their townsd
And consume their limbs
And devour e-[them] because of their designs.-e
7f-For My people persists
In its defection from Me;
When it is summoned upward,
It does not rise at all.-f
8How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How surrender you, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah,
Render you like Zeboiim?g
I have had a change of heart,
All My tenderness is stirred.
9I will not act on My wrath,
Will not turn to destroy Ephraim.
For I am God, not man,
f-
The Holy One in your midst:
I will not come in fury.-f
10The LORD will roar like a lion,
And they shall march behind Him;
When He roars, His children shall come
Fluttering out of the west.
11They shall flutter from Egypt like sparrows,
From the land of Assyria like doves;
And
