⁹ For ^(A)they have gone up to Assyria,
    ^(B)a wild donkey wandering alone;
    Ephraim has hired lovers.

^{24     (A)}a wild donkey used to the wilderness,
in her heat sniffing the wind!
    Who can restrain her lust?
None who seek her need weary themselves;
    in her month they will find her.

12 Ephraim feeds on the wind
    and pursues ^(A)the east wind all day long;
they multiply ^(B)falsehood and violence;
    ^(C)they make a covenant with Assyria,
    and ^(D)oil is carried to Egypt.

¹⁰ Now ^(A)I will uncover her lewdness
    in the sight of her lovers,
    and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

⁵ For ^(A)their mother has played the whore;
    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For ^(B)she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who ^(C)give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
⁶ Therefore ^(D)I will hedge up her^[a] way with thorns,
    and ^(E)I will build a wall against her,
    so that she cannot find her paths.
⁷ She shall pursue her lovers
    but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
    but shall not find them.
^(F)Then she shall say,
    ‘I will go and return to ^(G)my first husband,
    ^(H)for it was better for me then than now.’