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7¹when I would heal Israel,
   the corruption of Ephraim is revealed,
   and the wicked deeds of Samaria;
for they deal falsely,
   the thief breaks in,
   and the bandits raid outside.
² But they do not consider
   that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their deeds surround them,
   they are before my face.
³ By their wickedness they make the king glad,
   and the officials by their treachery.
⁴ They are all adulterers;
   they are like a heated oven,
whose baker does not need to stir the fire,
   from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
⁵ On the day of our king the officials
   became sick with the heat of wine;
   he stretched out his hand with mockers.
⁶ For they are kindled^* like an oven, their heart burns within them;
   all night their anger smoulders;
   in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are hot as an oven,
   and they devour their rulers.
All their kings have fallen;
   none of them calls upon me.

⁸ Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;
   Ephraim is a cake not turned.
⁹ Foreigners devour his strength,
   but he does not know it;
grey hairs are sprinkled upon him,
   but he does not know it.
¹⁰ Israel’s pride testifies against^* him;
   yet they do not return to the Lord their God,
   or seek him, for all this.

Futile Reliance on the Nations

¹¹ Ephraim has become like a dove,
   silly and without sense;
   they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria.
¹² As they go, I will cast my net over them;
   I will bring them down like birds of the air;
   I will discipline them according to the report made to their assembly.^*
13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!
   Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
I would redeem them,
   but they speak lies against me.

¹⁴ They do not cry to me from the heart,
   but they wail upon their beds;
they gash themselves for grain and wine;
   they rebel against me.
¹⁵ It was I who trained and strengthened their arms,
   yet they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They turn to that which does not profit;^*
   they have become like a defective bow;
their officials shall fall by the sword
   because of the rage of their tongue.
So much for their babbling in the land of Egypt.

Israel’s Apostasy

8Set the trumpet to your lips!
   One like a vulture^* is over the house of the Lord,
because they have broken my covenant,
   and transgressed my law.
² Israel cries to me,
   ‘My God, we—Israel—know you!’
³ Israel has spurned the good;
   the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴ They made kings, but not through me;
   they set up princes, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they made idols
   for their own destruction.
⁵ Your calf is rejected, O Samaria.
   My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
⁶   For it is from Israel,
an artisan made it;
   it is not God.
The calf of Samaria
   shall be broken to pieces.^*

⁷ For they sow the wind,
   and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads,
   it shall yield no meal;
if it were to yield,
   foreigners would devour it.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up;
   now they are among the nations
   as a useless vessel.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria,
   a wild ass wandering alone;
   Ephraim has bargained for lovers.
¹⁰ Though they bargain with the nations,
   I will now gather them up.
They shall soon writhe
   under the burden of kings and princes.

¹¹ When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sin,
   they became to him altars for sinning.
¹² Though I write for him the multitude of my instructions,
   they are regarded as a strange thing.
¹³ Though they offer choice sacrifices,^*
   though they eat flesh,
   the Lord does not accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity,
   and punish their sins;
   they shall return to Egypt.
¹⁴ Israel has forgotten his Maker,
   and built palaces;
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
   but I will send a fire upon his cities,
   and it shall devour his strongholds.

Punishment for Israel’s Sin

9Do not rejoice, O Israel!
   Do not exult^* as other nations do;
for you have played the whore, departing from your God.
   You have loved a prostitute’s pay
   on all threshing-floors.
² Threshing-floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
   and the new wine shall fail them.
³ They shall not remain in the land of the Lord;
   but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
   and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food.

⁴ They shall not pour drink-offerings of wine to the Lord,
   and their sacrifices shall not please him.
Such sacrifices shall be like mourners’ bread;
   all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
   it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

⁵ What will you do on the day of appointed festival,
   and on the day of the festival of the Lord?
⁶ For even if they escape destruction,
   Egypt shall gather them,
   Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;^*
   thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷ The days of punishment have come,
   the days of recompense have come;
   Israel cries,^*
‘The prophet is a fool,
   the man of the spirit is mad!’
Because of your great iniquity,
   your hostility is great.
⁸ The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim,
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
   and hostility in the house of his God.
⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves
   as in the days of Gibeah;
he will remember their iniquity,
   he will punish their sins.

¹⁰ Like grapes in the wilderness,
   I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree,
   in its first season,
   I saw your ancestors.
But they came to Baal-peor,
   and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame,
   and became detestable like the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
   no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
¹² Even if they bring up children,
   I will bereave them until no one is left.
Woe to them indeed
   when I depart from them!
¹³ Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow,^*
   but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter.
¹⁴ Give them, O Lord—
   what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
   and dry breasts.

¹⁵ Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal;
   there I came 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 their officials are rebels.

¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken,
   their root is dried up,
   they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
   I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.
¹⁷ Because they have not listened to him,
   my God will reject them;
   they shall become wanderers among the nations.

Israel’s Sin and Captivity

10Israel is a luxuriant vine
   that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased
   the more altars he built;
as his country improved,
   he improved his pillars.
² Their heart is false;
   now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord ^* will break down their altars,
   and destroy their pillars.

³ For now they will say:
   ‘We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord,
   and a king—what could he do for us?’
⁴ They utter mere words;
   with empty oaths they make covenants;
so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds
   in the furrows of the field.
⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria tremble
   for the calf^* of Beth-aven.
Its people shall mourn for it,
   and its idolatrous priests shall wail^* over it,
   over its glory that has departed from it.
⁶ The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria
   as tribute to the great king.^*
Ephraim shall be put to shame,
   and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.^*

⁷ Samaria’s king shall perish
   like a splinter on the face of the waters.
⁸ The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
   shall be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle shall grow up
   on their altars.
They shall say to the mountains, Cover us,
   and to the hills, Fall on us.

⁹ Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;
   there they have continued.
   Shall not war overtake them in Gibeah?
¹⁰ I will come^* against the wayward people to punish them;
   and nations shall be gathered against them
   when they are punished^* for their double iniquity.

¹¹ Ephraim was a trained heifer
   that loved to thresh,
   and I spared her fair neck;
but I will make Ephraim break the ground;
   Judah must plough;
   Jacob must harrow for himself.
¹² Sow for yourselves righteousness;
   reap steadfast love;
   break up your fallow ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
   that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

¹³ You have ploughed wickedness,
   you have reaped injustice,
   you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your power
   and in the multitude of your warriors,
¹⁴ therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people,
   and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,
as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle
   when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
¹⁵ Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,
   because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
   shall be utterly cut off.

God’s Compassion Despite Israel’s Ingratitude

11When Israel was a child, I loved him,
   and out of Egypt I called my son.
² The more I^* called them,
   the more they went from me;^*
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
   and offering incense to idols.

³ Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
   I took them up in my^* arms;
   but they did not know that I healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
   with bands of love.
I was to them like those
   who lift infants to their cheeks.^*
   I bent down to them and fed them.

⁵ They shall return to the land of Egypt,
   and Assyria shall be their king,
   because they have refused to return to me.
⁶ The sword rages in their cities,
   it consumes their oracle-priests,
   and devours because of their schemes.
⁷ My people are bent on turning away from me.
   To the Most High they call,
   but he does not raise them up at all.^*

⁸ How can I give you up, Ephraim?
   How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
   How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
   my compassion grows warm and tender.
⁹ I will not execute my fierce anger;
   I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
   the Holy One in your midst,
   and I will not come in wrath.^*

¹⁰ They shall go after the Lord,
   who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
   his children shall come trembling from the west.
¹¹ They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
   and like doves from the land of Assyria;
   and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.

^{12 *}Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
   and the house of Israel with deceit;
but Judah still walks^* with God,
   and is faithful to the Holy One.