7  ^xwhen I would heal Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,

and the evil deeds of ^ySamaria,

for ^zthey deal falsely;

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid outside.

2  But they do not consider

that ^aI remember all their evil.

Now ^btheir deeds surround them;

^cthey are before my face.

3  By their evil ^dthey make ^dthe king glad,

and the princes by their treachery.

4  ^eThey are all adulterers;

they are like a heated oven

whose baker ceases to stir the fire,

from the kneading of the dough

until it is leavened.

5  On the day of ^four king, the princes

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.

6  For with hearts like an oven ^gthey approach their intrigue;

all night their anger smolders;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

7  All of them are hot as an oven,

and they devour their rulers.

All ^htheir kings ⁱhave fallen,

and none of them calls upon me.

8  Ephraim ^jmixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

9  ^kStrangers devour his strength,

and ^lhe knows it not;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

and ^lhe knows it not.

10  ^mThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;¹

ⁿyet they do not return to the Lord their God,

nor seek him, for all this.

11  Ephraim is like a dove,

^osilly and without sense,

calling to ^pEgypt, going to ^qAssyria.

12  As they go, ^rI will spread over them my net;

I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;

^sI will discipline them ^taccording to the report made to their congregation.

13  ^uWoe to them, for they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!

^vI would redeem them,

but ^wthey speak lies against me.

14  ^xThey do not cry to me from the heart,

but ^ythey wail upon their beds;

for grain and wine they gash themselves;

they rebel against me.

15  Although ^zI trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they devise evil against me.

16  They ^areturn, but not upward;²

they are ^blike a treacherous bow;

their princes shall fall by the sword

because of ^cthe insolence of their tongue.

This shall be their derision ^din the land of Egypt.

8  Set ^ethe trumpet to your lips!

One ^flike a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because ^gthey have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

2  To me they cry,

^h“My God, we—Israel—know you.”

3  Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

4  ⁱThey made kings, ^jbut not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.

5  ^kI have¹ spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

^lHow long will they be incapable of innocence?

6  For it is from Israel;

a craftsman made it;

it is not God.

^kThe calf of Samaria

^mshall be broken to pieces.²

7  For ⁿthey sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no flour;

if it were to yield,

^ostrangers would devour it.

8  ^pIsrael is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

as ^qa useless vessel.

9  For ^rthey have gone up to Assyria,

^sa wild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

10  Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And ^tthe king and princes ^ushall soon writhe

because of the tribute.

11  Because Ephraim ^vhas multiplied altars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

12  ^wWere I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

13  As for my sacrificial offerings,

^xthey sacrifice meat and eat it,

but the Lord does not accept them.

^yNow he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

^zthey shall return to Egypt.

14  For ^aIsrael has forgotten ^bhis Maker

and ^cbuilt palaces,

and ^aJudah has multiplied fortified cities;

so ^dI will send a fire upon his cities,

and it shall devour her strongholds.

9  Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult not like the peoples;

^efor you have played the whore, forsaking your God.

^fYou have loved a prostitute’s wages

on all threshing floors.

2  ^gThreshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,

and ^gthe new wine shall fail them.

3  They shall not remain in ^hthe land of the Lord,

but ⁱEphraim shall return to Egypt,

and ^jthey shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

4  ^kThey shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,

^land their sacrifices shall not please him.

It shall be like ^mmourners’ bread to them;

all who eat of it shall be defiled;

for their bread shall be for their hunger only;

ⁿit shall not come to the house of the Lord.

5  ^oWhat will you do on the day of the appointed festival,

and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

6  For behold, they are going away from destruction;

but ^pEgypt shall gather them;

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess ^qtheir precious things of silver;

^rthorns shall be in their tents.

7  ^sThe days of punishment have come;

the days of recompense have come;

Israel shall know it.

^tThe prophet is a fool;

the man of the spirit is mad,

because of your great iniquity

and great hatred.

8  The prophet is ^uthe watchman of Ephraim with my God;

yet ^va fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

and hatred in the house of his God.

9  ^wThey have deeply corrupted themselves

as ^xin the days of Gibeah:

^whe will remember their iniquity;

he will punish their sins.

10  Like grapes in the wilderness,

^yI found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree

in its first season,

I saw your fathers.

But ^zthey came to Baal-peor

and ^aconsecrated themselves to the thing of shame,

and ^bbecame detestable like the thing they loved.

11  Ephraim’s ^cglory shall fly away like a bird—

^dno birth, no pregnancy, no conception!

12  ^eEven if they bring up children,

I will bereave them till none is left.

^fWoe to them

when ^gI depart from them!

13  Ephraim, ^has I have seen, was like a young palm¹ planted in a meadow;

but ^eEphraim must lead his children out to slaughter.²

14  Give them, O Lord—

what will you give?

Give them ⁱa miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

15  Every evil of theirs is in ^jGilgal;

there I began to hate them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more;

all ^ktheir princes are ^lrebels.

16  Ephraim is stricken;

^mtheir root is dried up;

they shall bear no fruit.

Even ⁿthough they give birth,

^eI will put their beloved children to death.

17  ^oMy God will reject them

because they have not listened to him;

^pthey shall be wanderers among the nations.

10  ^qIsrael is a luxuriant vine

that yields its fruit.

The more his fruit increased,

^rthe more altars he built;

as his country improved,

he improved his pillars.

2  Their heart is false;

now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord¹ will break down their altars

and destroy their pillars.

3  For now they will say:

^s“We have no king,

for we do not fear the Lord;

and a king—what could he do for us?”

4  They utter ^tmere words;

with empty² oaths they make covenants;

so ^ujudgment springs up like poisonous weeds

^vin the furrows of the field.

5  The inhabitants of Samaria tremble

for ^wthe calf³ of ^xBeth-aven.

Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—

those who rejoiced over it and ^yover its glory—

for it has departed⁴ from them.

6  ^zThe thing itself shall be carried to Assyria

as tribute to ^athe great king.⁵

Ephraim shall be put to shame,

and Israel shall be ashamed ^bof his idol.⁶

7  ^cSamaria’s king shall perish

like a twig on the face of the waters.

8  The high places of ^xAven, ^dthe sin of Israel,

shall be destroyed.

^eThorn and thistle shall grow up

on their altars,

and ^fthey shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”

and to the hills, “Fall on us.”

9  From ^gthe days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;

there they have continued.

Shall not the war against the unjust⁷ overtake them in Gibeah?

10  ^hWhen I please, ⁱI will discipline them,

and nations shall be gathered against them

when they are bound up for ^jtheir double iniquity.

11  Ephraim was a trained calf

that ^kloved to thresh,

and I spared her fair neck;

but I will put ^lEphraim to the yoke;

^lJudah must plow;

Jacob must harrow for himself.

12  ^mSow for yourselves righteousness;

reap steadfast love;

ⁿbreak up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the Lord,

that he may come and ^orain righteousness upon you.

13  ^pYou have plowed iniquity;

you have reaped injustice;

you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your own way

and in the multitude of your warriors,

14  therefore ^qthe tumult of war shall arise among your people,

and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,

as ^rShalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;

^smothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

15  Thus it shall be done to you, O ^tBethel,

because of your great evil.

At dawn ^athe king of Israel

shall be utterly cut off.

11  ^uWhen Israel was a child, ^vI loved him,

and out of Egypt I ^wcalled ^xmy son.

2  ^yThe more they were called,

the more they went away;

^zthey kept sacrificing to the Baals

and burning offerings to idols.

3  Yet it was ^aI who taught Ephraim to walk;

I took them up by their arms,

but they did not know that ^bI healed them.

4  ^cI led them with cords of kindness,¹

with the bands of love,

and ^dI became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,

and ^eI bent down to them and fed them.

5  ^fThey shall not² return to the land of Egypt,

but ^gAssyria shall be their king,

^hbecause ⁱthey have refused to return to me.

6  ^jThe sword shall rage against their cities,

consume the bars of their gates,

and devour them ^kbecause of their own counsels.

7  My people are bent ^lon turning away from me,

and though ^mthey call out to the Most High,

he shall not raise them up at all.

8  How can I give you up, O Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, O Israel?

ⁿHow can I make you ^olike Admah?

How can I treat you ^olike Zeboiim?

^pMy heart recoils within me;

my compassion grows warm and tender.

9  I will not execute my burning anger;

I will not again destroy Ephraim;

^qfor I am God and not a man,

^rthe Holy One in your midst,

and I will not come in wrath.³

10  ^sThey shall go after the Lord;

^the will roar like a lion;

when he roars,

his children shall come trembling ^ufrom the west;

11  they shall come trembling like birds ^vfrom Egypt,

and ^wlike doves ^xfrom the land of Assyria,

and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.

12  ⁴ Ephraim ^yhas surrounded me with lies,

and the house of Israel with deceit,

but Judah still walks with God

and is faithful to the Holy One.