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 I will settle them in their homes
—declares the LORD.
12
Ephraim surrounds Me with deceit,
The House of Israel with guile.a
b-
(But Judah stands firm with God
And is faithful to the Holy One.)-b
2Ephraim tends the wind
And pursues the gale;
He is forever adding
Illusion to calamity.c
Now they make a covenant with Assyria,
Now oil is carried to Egypt.d
3The LORD once indicted Judah,e
And punished Jacob for his conduct,
Requited him for his deeds.
4In the womb he tried to supplant his brother;
Grown to manhood, he strove with a divine being,f
5He strove with an angel and prevailed—
The other had to weep and implore him.
At Bethel [Jacob] would meet him,
There to commune with him.g
6Yet the LORD, the God of Hosts,
Must be invoked as “LORD.”h
7You must return to your God!
Practice goodness and justice,
And constantly trust in your God.
8A trader who uses false balances,
Who loves to overreach,
9Ephraim thinks,
“Ah, I have become rich;
I have gotten power!
b-
All my gains do not amount
To an offense which is real guilt.”-b
10I the LORD have been your God
Ever since the land of Egypt.
I will let you dwell in your tentsi again
As in the days of old,j
11When I spoke to the prophets;
For I granted many visions,
b-
And spoke parables through the prophets.
12As for Gilead, it is worthless;
And to no purpose-b have they
Been sacrificing oxen in Gilgal:
The altars of these are also
Like stone heaps upon a plowed field.k
13Then Jacob had to fleel to the land of Aram;
There Israel served for a wife,
For a wife he had to guard [sheep].
14But when the LORD
Brought Israel up from Egypt,
It was through a prophet;m
Through a prophetmthey were guarded.
15nEphraim gave bitter offense,
And his Lord cast his crimes upon him
And requited him for his mockery.
13
When Ephraim spoke piety,
He was exalted in Israel;
But he incurred guilt through Baal,a
And so he died.
2And now they go on sinning;
They have made them molten images,
Idols, by their skill, from their silver,
Wholly the work of craftsmen.
b-
Yet for these they appoint men to sacrifice;-b
They are wont to kiss calves!
3Assuredly,
They shall be like morning clouds,
Like dew so early gone;
Like chaff whirled away from the threshing floor.
And like smoke from a lattice.
4Only I the LORD have been your God
Ever since the land of Egypt;
You have never known a [true] God but Me,
You have never had a helper other than Me.
5I looked after you in the desert,
In a thirsty land.
6When they grazed, they were sated;
When they were sated, they grew haughty;
And so they forgot Me.
7So I am become like a lion to them,
Like a leopard I lurk on the way;
8Like a bear robbed of her young I attack them
And rip open the casing of their hearts;
c-
I will devour them there like a lion,-c
The beasts of the field shall mangle them.
9b-You are undone, O Israel!
You had no help but Me.-b
10Where now is your king?
Let him save you!
Where are the chieftains in all your towns
Whom you demanded:
“Give me a king and officers”?
11I give you kings in my ire,
And take them away in My wrath.
12Ephraim’s guilt is bound up,
His sin is stored away.d
13Pangs of childbirth assail him,
b-
And the babe is not wise—
For this is no time to survive
At the birthstool of babes.-b
14eFrom Sheol itself I will save them,
Redeem them from very Death.
Where, O Death, are your plagues?
Your pestilence where, O Sheol?
f-
Revenge shall be far from My thoughts.-f
15For though he flourish among reeds,
A blast, a wind of the LORD,
Shall come blowing up from the wilderness;
His fountain shall be parched,
His spring dried up.
That [wind] shall plunder treasures,
14
Every lovely object.
Samaria must bear her guilt,
For she has defied her God.
They shall fall by the sword,
Their infants shall be dashed to death,
And their women with child ripped open.
2Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,
For you have fallen because of your sin.
3Take words with you
And return to the LORD.
Say to Him:
a-
“Forgive all guilt
And accept what is good;
Instead of bulls we will pay
[The offering of] our lips.-a
4Assyria shall not save us,
No more will we ride on steeds;b
Nor ever again will we call
Our handiwork our god,
Since in You alone orphans find pity!”
5I will heal their affliction,c
Generously will I take them back in love;
For My anger has turned away from them.d
6I will be to Israel like dew;
He shall blossom like the lily,
He shall strike root like a e-Lebanon tree.-e
7His boughs shall spread out far,
His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s,
His fragrance like that of Lebanon.
8They who sit in
