Beginning
The Lord’s Anger Burns Against Israel
8 Raise a ram’s horn to your lips!
A vulture is circling over[a] the Lord’s house,
because they have broken my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
2 Israel cries out to me,
“My God, we acknowledge[b] you!”
3 But, in fact, Israel has rejected what is good.
An enemy will pursue him.
4 They set up kings, but not with my approval.
They installed officials, but I did not choose[c] them.
From their silver and their gold they made idols for themselves,
so they will be cut off.
5 I reject[d] your calf idol, Samaria!
My anger burns against these people!
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 That thing sitting there is from Israel!
A craftsman made it, so it is not God.
Certainly that calf of Samaria will be smashed to pieces!
7 Because they sow the wind,
they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain forms no heads,
so it will yield no flour.
Even if it would yield flour, foreigners would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up.
Now among the nations they are like a pot no one wants.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey all by itself.
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Even though they hire lovers among the nations,
I will now gather them together.
They will begin to suffer in a little while,
because of oppression by a king with many officials.
11 Ephraim has multiplied his altars for sin offerings,
but for him they became altars for sinning.
12 Though I wrote many teachings from my law for them,
they regarded them as strange.
13 They offer sacrifices to me just to get the meat.[e]
They sacrifice flesh and eat it,
but the Lord is not pleased with them.
Now he will remember their guilt
and punish their sins.
They will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten its Maker and built palaces.[f]
Judah has multiplied its fortified cities,
but I will send fire on its cities,
which will devour its citadels.
Days of Retribution Are Near
9 Do not rejoice, Israel, with excessive celebration like the nations,
because you act promiscuously against your God.
You love the wages you can earn as a prostitute at every threshing floor for grain.
2 The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them,
and the new wine will fail for them.
3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land.
Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord.
Their sacrifices will not be pleasing to him.
For them, their bread will become like the bread eaten by mourners.
Everyone who eats it will be unclean.
This bread will only serve their own appetite.
It will not enter the House of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festivals
and on the feast days of the Lord?
6 Know this! Even if they flee from destruction,
Egypt will gather them up.
Memphis will bury them.
Thistles will overgrow their silver treasures.
Thorns will grow inside their tents.
7 The days of reckoning have come.
The days of retribution have come.
Israel should know this!
Israel Rejects the Prophets
The prophet is treated like a fool,
and the man of the Spirit is called crazy,
because your guilt is enormous,
and because your hostility is so great.
8 A prophet is to be a watchman over Ephraim for my God,
but a fowler’s snare is laid for him on all of Ephraim’s paths,
and he encounters hostility in the house of his God.[g]
9 They have become extremely corrupt,
as they were in the days of Gibeah.
God will remember their guilt.
He will punish them for their sins.
Fertility Worship Brings No Fertility
10 I regarded Israel like grapes found in the wilderness.
I regarded your forefathers like the first ripe fruit on a fig tree in its first season,
but they went to Baal Peor, and they devoted themselves to a shameful thing,
and they became as disgusting as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Even if they bring up their children,
I will deprive them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
13 I have seen Ephraim planted in a pleasant place like Tyre,
but Ephraim will bring its children out to the executioner.
14 Give to them, Lord—but what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal,
I hated them there.
Because of their evil deeds,
I will drive them out of my house!
I will love them no more.
All their officials are rebels.
16 Ephraim has been struck down.
Their root has dried up.
They will bear no fruit.
Even if they give birth,
I will put their precious offspring to death.
17 My God will reject them, because they have not obeyed him.
They will be wanderers among the nations.
10 Israel was a spreading[h] vine.
He produced fruit for himself.
The more fruit he produced, the more altars he made.
The richer the land became, the richer he made his sacred memorial stones.
2 Their hearts are insincere,[i]
so now they will suffer for their guilt.
The Lord will break down their altars
and destroy their sacred memorial stones.
Kings Cannot Save You
3 Certainly now they will say, “We have no king
because we did not fear the Lord,
but what could such a king do for us anyway?”
4 They speak empty words.
With empty oaths, they make agreements.
That is why disputes sprout like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria will be terrified because of the calf[j] of Beth Aven.
Yes, its people will mourn over it,
and its idolatrous priests will cry out over it,
over its lost glory, because it has gone into exile.
6 It will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the Great King.[k]
Ephraim will be gripped with shame,
and Israel will be ashamed of its own idol.[l]
7 Samaria, like her king, will be carried off
like a twig on the surface of the water.
8 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will become unusable.
Thorns and thistles will grow on their altars.
They will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
Learn the Lesson of Gibeah
9 Israel, you have sinned ever since the days of Gibeah,
where the evildoers took their stand.
The war against the evildoers caught up with them at Gibeah, did it not?
10 When I see fit, I will discipline them.[m]
Peoples will be gathered against them
to bind them for their double guilt.[n]
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh.
I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck.[o]
I will harness Ephraim.
Judah will plow.
Jacob will break up the ground.
12 Sow righteousness for yourselves,
and reap mercy.
Break up your fallow ground.
It is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes and rains righteousness on you.
13 You have plowed wickedness.
You have reaped injustice.
You have eaten the fruit of your lies,
because you trusted in your own way,
in the large number of your strong warriors.
14 Therefore the roar of battle will rise against your people,
and all your fortresses will be destroyed,
as Shalman[p] devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle.
Mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.
15 This is what will be done to you, Bethel,
because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.
God’s Love for Israel
11 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called to them,
the more they went away from me.[q]
They kept sacrificing to the Baals
and burning incense to idols.
3 Yet I was the one who taught Ephraim to walk.
I took them in my arms,[r]
but they did not realize that it was I who healed them.
4 I drew them with cords suitable for a man,[s] with ropes of love.
For them I became like someone who lifts a yoke off their neck,
and I bent down to feed them.
5 They will not[t] return into the land of Egypt.
Instead, an Assyrian will be their king,
because they refused to repent.
6 The sword will slash against their cities.
It will destroy the bars of their gates,
and it will devour them because of their plans.
7 My people are determined to turn away from me.
Though they call him the Most High, he certainly will not exalt them.
8 How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?[u]
My heart is changed inside me.
All my compassion is stirred up.
9 I will not carry out my burning anger.
I will not destroy Ephraim again,
because I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you.
I will not enter a city.[v]
10 They will follow the Lord.
He will roar like a lion.
Yes, he will roar, and his children will come trembling from the west.
11 They will come trembling like a bird from Egypt,
and like a dove from the land of Assyria.
I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord.
Israel Must Repent
12 Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood,
and the house of Israel with deceit.
Judah still strays from[w] God,
even from the Holy One, who is faithful.[x]
12 Ephraim feeds on wind
and chases the east wind all day.
He multiplies lies and violence.
They make a treaty with Assyria,
and olive oil is carried to Egypt.
2 The Lord has a case against Judah.
He will deal with Jacob according to his ways.
According to his deeds he will repay him.
3 In the womb Jacob grasped his brother by the heel,
and when he was a grown man, he struggled with God.
4 He wrestled with the Angel and prevailed.
He wept and sought his favor.
He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him,[y]
5 namely, with the Lord, the God of Armies.
The Lord is the name by which he is to be remembered!
6 So return to your God.
Observe mercy and justice,
and wait for your God continually.
7 A merchant has fraudulent scales in his hand.
He loves to defraud others.
8 Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich.
I have secured wealth for myself.
Among all my possessions no one will find anything that makes me guilty of sin.”
9 But I have been the Lord your God from the time you left the land of Egypt.
I will make you dwell in tents again,
as in the days of the appointed festival.[z]
10 I have spoken to the prophets.
I have given numerous visions.
I taught meaningful lessons through the prophets.
11 Since Gilead is wicked,
it is certain that they are worthless.
In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls.
Yes, their altars are like piles of stones in the furrows of a field.
12 Jacob fled to the territory of Aram.
Israel worked as a servant to get a wife,
and for a wife, he took care of sheep.
13 By a prophet, the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt,
and by a prophet he took care of Israel.
14 Ephraim has provoked bitter anger.
Therefore his Lord will leave him bloodied by his guilt
and bring his disgrace back on him.
Repentance or Disaster?
13 When Ephraim spoke, people would tremble.
He was highly honored in Israel,
but he became guilty through worshipping Baal, so he died.
2 Now they sin more and more.
They make cast images for themselves,
idols skillfully made from their silver,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said about them, “The ones who sacrifice are humans who kiss calves!”[aa]
3 Therefore they will be like morning mist,
and like early dew that passes away,
like chaff that is blown away from the threshing floor,
and like smoke from a chimney.
4 But I have been the Lord your God since you left the land of Egypt.
You must not acknowledge any god except me.
There is no Savior except me.
5 I took care of you in the wilderness,
in a land burned by drought.
6 When they had pasture, they were satisfied.
When they were satisfied, their hearts became arrogant.
That is why they have forgotten me.
7 So I will be like a lion to them.
Like a leopard, I will lurk along the path.
8 I will come upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs.
I will tear the cover off their hearts.
Then I will devour them like a lioness.
The wild animals will rip them apart.
9 This is what has destroyed you, Israel:
the fact that you are against me, against your helper.[ab]
10 So where is your king, so that he may save you in all your cities,
and your judges, whom you requested, saying, “Give me a king and officials”?
11 I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath.
12 The guilt of Ephraim is wrapped up.
His sin is stored up.
13 Labor pains will come for him,
but he is not a wise son,
for when the time arrives,
he is not ready to be born.
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave![ac]
I will redeem them from death!
Death, where are your plagues?
Grave, where is your destruction?
Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.
15 Although he flourishes as a son among brothers,[ad]
an east wind will come.
The breath[ae] of the Lord is coming up from the wilderness.
His spring will become dry.
His fountain will be dried up.
His treasury will be plundered of every precious article.
16 Samaria will be found guilty,
because she rebelled against her God.
The people will fall by the sword.
Their little children will be dashed to the ground,
and their pregnant women will be ripped open.[af]
Return to the Lord!
14 Israel, return to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your guilt.
2 Take words with you[ag] and return to the Lord.
Say to him, “Forgive all our guilt,
and receive us graciously,
and let us present the fruit of our lips as bulls.[ah]
3 Assyria cannot save us.
We will not ride on horses.
We will no longer call the work of our hands our gods!
For in you the fatherless child finds compassion.”
4 I will cure them of their unfaithfulness.
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be refreshing like dew to Israel.
It will blossom like a lily.
It will take root like a cedar of Lebanon.
6 Its young shoots will sprout.
Its beauty will be like an olive tree.
Its fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 Those who live in Israel’s shade will once again grow grain.
They will blossom like a grape vine.
Its fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim, how much more do I have to put up with from idols?
I am the one who has answered, and I look after him.
I am like a fresh fir tree.
Your fruit comes from me.
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things.
Who is discerning? Let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.