8 “Put the shofar to your lips!
Like a vulture [he swoops down] on the house of Adonai,
because they have violated my covenant
and sinned intentionally against my Torah.
² Will they cry out to me,
‘We are Isra’el, God, we know you’?
³ Isra’el has thrown away what is good;
the enemy will pursue him.
⁴ They make kings, but without my authority;
they appoint leaders, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they make themselves idols,
but these can lead only to their own destruction.
⁵ Your calf, Shomron, has been thrown away;
my fury burns against them.
How long will it be until they are able
to make themselves clean?
⁶ Here is what Isra’el produces:
a craftsman makes something — it’s a non-god;
the calf of Shomron will be broken to pieces.
⁷ For they sow the wind,
so they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no ears,
so it will yield no flour;
and if it does yield any,
foreigners will swallow it up.
⁸ Isra’el is swallowed up;
now they are among the Goyim
like a vessel nobody wants.
⁹ For they have gone up to Ashur;
like a wild donkey, alone by itself,
Efrayim has bargained for lovers.
¹⁰ But even if they bargain among the Goyim,
now I will round them up.
Soon they will start to feel the burden
of these kings and leaders.
¹¹ For Efrayim keeps building altars for sin;
yes, altars are sinful for him.
¹² I write him so many things from my Torah,
yet he considers them foreign.
¹³ They offer me sacrifices of flesh and eat them,
but Adonai does not accept them.
Now he will recall their crimes and punish their sins —
they will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ For Isra’el forgot his maker and built palaces;
and Y’hudah made more fortified cities;
but I will send fire on his cities,
and it will consume their strongholds.”