My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children.

The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.

They feed on the sin of My people, And long for their wrongdoing.

Since Israel is stubborn Like a stubborn cow, Will the Lord now pasture them Like a lamb in a large field?

Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, They have become altars of sinning for him.

As for My sacrificial gifts, They sacrifice the flesh and eat it, But the Lord has taken no delight in them. Now He will remember their guilt, And punish them for their sins; They will return to Egypt.

They are deeply depraved As in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt, He will punish their sins.

Retribution for Israel’s Sin

Israel is a luxuriant vine; He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, The more altars he made; The richer his land, The better he made the memorial stones.

The inhabitants of Samaria will fear For the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn for it, And its idolatrous priests will cry out over it, Over its glory, since it has left it.

Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; Thorns and thistles will grow on their altars; Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, Israel; There they stand! Will the battle against the sons of injustice not overtake them in Gibeah?

And Ephraim said, “I have certainly become rich, I have found wealth for myself; In all my labors they will find in me No wrongdoing, which would be sin.”

But I have been the Lord your God since the land of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, As in the days of the appointed festival.

And now they sin more and more, And make for themselves cast metal images, Idols skillfully made from their silver, All of them the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the people who sacrifice kiss the calves!”

Yet I have been the Lord your God Since the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any god except Me, For there is no savior besides Me.

The guilt of Ephraim is wrapped up; His sin is stored up.