Beginning
The Apostasy of Israel
8 Set the trumpet to your mouth!
One like an eagle is on the house of the Lord,
because they have transgressed My covenant
and rebelled against My law.
2 Israel cries to Me,
“My God, we know You.”
3 Israel has cast off the good;
the enemy will pursue him.
4 They set up kings, but not through Me;
they made princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and gold,
they made idols,
so that they will be cut off.
5 Your calf, O Samaria, is rejected!
My anger is kindled against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For it is from Israel;
a craftsman made it,
and it is not God!
The calf of Samaria
will be broken to pieces.
7 For they sow the wind,
and they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no head
and will yield no flour.
If it were to yield,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up.
Now they are among the nations
as a vessel in which there is no pleasure.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey alone by itself;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Though they hire among the nations,
I will now gather them.
They will begin to diminish due to the burden
of the king of princes.
11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
12 I have written for him the great things of My law,
but they were regarded as a strange thing.
13 For the sacrifices of My offerings,
they sacrifice flesh and eat it;
but the Lord does not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
They will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built temples,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
so I will send a fire upon his cities,
and it will devour his palaces.
The Punishment of Israel
9 Do not rejoice, O Israel!
Do not exult[a] like the peoples,
for you have played the whore departing from your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on every threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress will not feed them,
and the new wine will fail in her.
3 They will not dwell in the land of the Lord;
but Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They will not offer wine offerings to the Lord,
and their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their sacrifices will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat of it will be defiled.
For their bread will be only to satisfy their own hunger;
it will not come into the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the appointed day,
and on the day of the festival of the Lord?
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt will gather them,
and Memphis will bury them.
Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver,
and thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come.
Israel knows!
The prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is insane,
because of your great iniquity and great hatred.
8 The watchman of Ephraim is a prophet
for 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 Gibeah.
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 went to Baal Peor
and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame,
and they became an abomination like the thing they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird:
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
I will bereave them until none are left.
Woe to them indeed,
when I depart from them!
13 Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre,
planted in a pleasant place,
so now Ephraim will bring out
his children for slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord—
what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal,
for there I hated 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 Ephraim is stricken,
their root is dried up,
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will slay the beloved offspring of their womb.
17 My God will reject them
because they did not listen to Him,
and they will be wanderers among the nations.
Israel’s Sin and Captivity
10 Israel is a fertile vine
that brings forth its fruit.
As his fruit multiplied,
so his altars increased;
as his land prospered,
so he[b] improved his pillars.
2 Their heart is divided;
now they must bear their guilt.
He will break down their altars
and destroy their pillars.
3 For now they will say,
“We have no king,
because we do not fear the Lord;
and a king, what could he do for us?”
4 They speak mere words,
swearing falsely
in making a covenant.
Thus judgment springs up like a poisonous plant
in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria fear
because of the calf of Beth Aven.
For its people mourn for it,
and its priests shriek for it,
because its glory has departed from it.
6 It will be carried to Assyria
as a tribute to King Jareb.[c]
Ephraim shall be put to shame,
and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.[d]
7 As for Samaria, her king will perish
like a twig on the water.
8 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
will be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle will grow
on their altars.
They will say to the mountains, Cover us,
and to the hills, Fall on us.
9 O Israel, you have sinned since the days of Gibeah.
There they have continued.[e]
Will not the war in Gibeah against evildoers
overtake them?
10 When I desire, I will punish them.
The nations will be gathered against them
when they are disciplined[f] for their two transgressions.
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer
that loves to thresh grain,
but I harnessed her fair neck;
I will make Ephraim pull a plow.
Judah will plow;
Jacob shall furrow for himself.
12 Sow to yourselves righteousness,
reap mercy,
break up your fallow ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
until He comes
and rains righteousness upon you.
13 You have plowed wickedness.
You have reaped iniquity,
and you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your power
and in the numbers of your warriors,
14 therefore a tumult will arise among your people,
and all your fortresses will be destroyed
as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle;
mothers were dashed to pieces upon their children.
15 So will it be done to you, O Bethel,
because of your great wickedness.
At dawn
the king of Israel will be utterly cut off.
God’s Love for Israel
11 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called My son.
2 As I[g] called them,
so they went from Me.[h]
They sacrificed to the Baals
and burned incense to idols.
3 I taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them up in My[i] arms,
but they did not know
that I healed them.
4 I drew them with cords of human kindness,[j]
with bands of love.
I was to them as those who ease the yoke on their neck,[k]
and I bent down and fed them.
5 He will return[l] to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria will be his king,
because they refused to return to Me.
6 The sword slashes in their cities,
consumes their oracle-priests,
and devours because of their own counsels.
7 My people are bent on backsliding from Me.
Though they called to the Most High,
none at all exalt Him.
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 Zeboyim?
My heart churns within Me;
My compassion is stirred.
9 I will not execute the fierceness of My anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim.
For I am God, and not man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
10 They will walk after the Lord,
who roars like a lion.
When He roars,
His children will come trembling from the west.
11 They will come trembling
like a bird out of Egypt
and like a dove from the land of Assyria.
And I will let them dwell in their houses,
says the Lord.
God’s Charge Against Ephraim
12 Ephraim has surrounded Me with lies,
and the house of Israel with deceit.
But Judah still walks with God,
and is faithful to the Holy One.[m]
12 Ephraim feeds on the wind
and chases after the east wind all day long.
He multiplies lies and devastation.
They make a covenant with Assyria,
and oil is carried to Egypt.
A History of Rebellion
2 The Lord has a dispute with Judah,
and will punish Jacob according to his ways,
and repay him according to his doings.
3 In the womb, he took his brother by the heel,
and by his strength he strove with God.
4 He struggled with the angel, and prevailed;
he wept, and sought favor from Him.
He found Him in Bethel,
and there He spoke with us.
5 As for the Lord the God of Hosts,
the Lord is the name by which He is invoked!
6 But as for you, return to your God,
hold fast to mercy and justice,
and wait on your God continually.
7 A merchant, in whose hands are deceitful balances,
he loves to oppress.
8 Ephraim said,
“Yet I am rich, I have found wealth for myself.
In all my labors, they shall find no offense in me
that would be sin.”
9 I am the Lord your God
from the land of Egypt.
I will again make you to dwell in tents,
as in the days of the appointed feast.
10 I have spoken by the prophets,
and I have multiplied visions,
and through the prophets I will bring destruction.[n]
11 In Gilead there is iniquity;
surely they will come to nothing.
In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls,
so their altars will be like stone heaps
in the furrows of the fields.
12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram,
and Israel served for a wife,
and for a wife he kept sheep.
13 By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up from Egypt,
and by a prophet he was preserved.
14 Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly,
so his Lord shall leave his bloodguilt on him
and repay him for his reproach.
God’s Unrelenting Judgment on Israel
13 When Ephraim spoke, trembling,
he was exalted in Israel.
But he incurred guilt through Baal worship and he died.
2 And now they continue sinning
and have made a cast image for themselves,
idols of their silver, according to their understanding;
all of them the work of craftsmen.
They say of them,
“Those who sacrifice[o]
are kissing calves!”
3 Therefore they will be like the morning cloud,
or like the early dew that passes away,
like chaff blown off the threshing floor,
or like the smoke from a chimney.
4 Yet I am the Lord your God
ever since the land of Egypt.
You know no God but Me,
and there is no savior besides Me.
5 I knew[p] you in the wilderness,
in the land of great drought.
6 When they had pasture, they were satisfied.
They were satisfied, and their heart was exalted;
therefore they forgot Me.
7 So I will be like a lion to them,
like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8 I will attack them like a bear bereaved of her cubs,
and will tear open their rib cage.
There I will devour them like a lion,
as the wild beast would tear them to pieces.
9 O Israel, you are destroyed,[q]
but in Me is your help.
10 Where now is your king
that he may save you in all your cities?
And where are your judges of whom you said,
“Give me a king and princes”?
11 I gave you a king in My anger,
and took him away in My wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
his sin is stored up.
13 The pains of childbirth come for him.
He is an unwise son,
for he does not present himself
at the opening of the womb.
14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol.
I will redeem them from Death.
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from My eyes.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brothers,
the east wind will come, a wind of the Lord,
rising from the wilderness.
And his spring shall become dry,
his fountain shall be dried up.
It shall plunder his treasury
of every desirable thing.
16 Samaria will be held guilty,
for she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
their infants will be dashed to pieces,
and their pregnant women will be ripped open.
A Plea for Repentance
14 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
2 Take words with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to Him,
“Take away all iniquity,
and accept that which is good;
and we will offer the fruit[r] of our lips!
3 Assyria will not save us,
we will not ride on horses.
We will no longer say, ‘Our God,’
to the work of our hands.
In You the orphan finds mercy.”
4 I will heal their backsliding;
I will love them freely,
for My anger has turned away from him.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall grow like the lily
and shall strike his roots
like Lebanon.
6 His branches will spread out,
and his beauty shall be like the olive tree,
and his fragrance like that of Lebanon.
7 Those that dwell under his shadow will return,
they will flourish like the grain
and grow as a vine.
Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after him.
I am like a green fir tree;
your fruit is found in Me.
9 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever prudent, let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the just will walk in them;
but the transgressors stumble in them.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.