⁷ But at^[b] Adam they transgressed the covenant;
    there they dealt faithlessly with me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    tracked with blood.
⁹ As robbers lie in wait^[c] for a man,
    so the priests are banded together;^[d]
they murder on the way to Shechem,
    yea, they commit villainy.
¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
    E′phraim’s harlotry is there, Israel is defiled.

¹¹ For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.

When I would restore the fortunes of my people,
7 ¹ when I would heal Israel,
the corruption of E′phraim is revealed,
    and the wicked deeds of Samar′ia;
for they deal falsely,
    the thief breaks in,
    and the bandits raid without.
² But they do not consider
    that I remember all their evil works.
Now their deeds encompass them,
    they are before my face.
³ By their wickedness they make the king glad,
    and the princes by their treachery.
⁴ They 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 our king the princes
    became sick with the heat of wine;
    he stretched out his hand with mockers.
⁶ For like an oven their hearts burn^[e] with 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 their kings have fallen;
    and none of them calls upon me.

⁸ E′phraim mixes himself with the peoples;
    E′phraim is a cake not turned.
⁹ Aliens devour his strength,
    and he knows it not;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
    and he knows it not.
¹⁰ The pride of Israel witnesses against him;
    yet they do not return to the Lord their God,
    nor seek him, for all this.

¹⁴ They do not cry to me from the heart,
    but they wail upon their beds;
for grain and wine they gash themselves,
    they rebel against me.
¹⁵ Although I trained and strengthened their arms,
    yet they devise evil against me.
¹⁶ They turn to Ba′al;^[g]
    they are like a treacherous bow,
their princes shall fall by the sword
    because of the insolence of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

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 I have^[i] spurned your calf, O Samar′ia.
    My anger burns against them.
How long will it be
    till they are pure ⁶ in Israel?^[j]

A workman made it;
    it is not God.
The calf of Samar′ia
    shall be broken to pieces.^[k]

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,
    aliens would devour it.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up;
    already they are among the nations
    as a useless vessel.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria,
    a wild ass wandering alone;
    E′phraim has hired lovers.
¹⁰ Though they hire allies among the nations,
    I will soon gather them up.
And they shall cease^[l] for a little while
    from anointing^[m] king and princes.

¹¹ Because E′phraim has multiplied altars for sinning,
    they have become to him altars for sinning.
¹² Were I to write for him my laws by ten thousands,
    they would be regarded as a strange thing.
¹³ They love sacrifice;^[n]
    they sacrifice flesh and eat it;
    but the Lord has no delight in them.
Now he will remember their iniquity,
    and punish their sins;
    they shall return to Egypt.
¹⁴ For 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.

⁴ They shall not pour libations of wine to the Lord;
    and they shall not please him with their sacrifices.
Their bread^[p] 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 feast of the Lord?
⁶ For behold, they are going to Assyria;^[q]
    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 shall know it.
The prophet is a fool,
    the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
    and great hatred.
⁸ The prophet is the watchman of E′phraim,
    the people of my God,
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
    and hatred in the house of his God.
⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves
    as in the days of Gib′e-ah:
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 fathers.
But they came to Ba′al-pe′or,
    and consecrated themselves to Ba′al,^[r]
    and became detestable like the thing they loved.
¹¹ E′phraim’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 till none is left.
Woe to them
    when I depart from them!
¹³ E′phraim’s sons, as I have seen, are destined for a prey;^[s]
    E′phraim must lead forth his sons to slaughter.
¹⁴ Give them, O Lord—
    what wilt thou give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
    and dry breasts.

¹⁵ Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;
    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 their princes are rebels.

¹⁶ E′phraim is stricken,
    their root is dried up,
    they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they bring forth,
    I will slay their beloved children.
¹⁷ My God will cast them off,
    because they have not hearkened to him;
    they shall be wanderers among the nations.

⁴ Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
    like the watercourses in the Negeb!
⁵ May those who sow in tears
    reap with shouts of joy!
⁶ He that goes forth weeping,
    bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
    bringing his sheaves with him.