Beginning
Reaping the Wind Storm
8 “Sound the ram’s horn!
Like a vulture[a] the enemy[b] will come against the Temple of the Lord,
because Israel[c] violated my covenant,
transgressing my Law.
2 They cry out to me,
‘God, we of Israel acknowledge you.’
3 “Israel has discarded what is good.
The enemy will pursue them.[d]
4 They set kings in place,
but not by me.
They established princes,
whom I did not recognize.
They crafted idols for themselves from their silver and gold;
as a result, they will be destroyed.
5 Your calf,[e] Samaria, has been thrown away.
My anger is burning against them.
How long until they become pure again?
6 Because from Israel it was fashioned by craftsmen,
it is not God;
therefore Samaria’s calf will be broken in pieces.
7 “Because they sow the wind,
they will reap the wind storm.
The plant has no stalk
and its bud yields no grain.
Even if there’s a harvest,
foreigners will gobble it up.
8 Israel has been devoured;
now they will live among the nations
like a worthless container.
9 “Because they went over to Assyria,
they are like a wild donkey alone by itself.
Ephraim has hired some lovers.
10 Even though they sold themselves to the nations,
I will gather them.
They will mourn for a while
for the burden they were to the king and princes.[f]
11 “The more altars Ephraim builds for sin,
the more altars there will be for sin.
12 I prescribed great things from my Law for them,[g]
but they considered them profane.
13 They offer me meat from the sacrifices of my offerings,
and they eat from it,
but the Lord does not accept them.
He will now remember their transgression
and pay them back for their sins;
to Egypt they will return.
14 “Israel has neglected its maker in building palaces.
Judah has multiplied its fortified cities,
but I will send fire to their cities,
and it will consume their fortresses.”
Punishment for Israel
9 “Don’t celebrate, Israel, like other nations would rejoice,
because you left your God by committing fornication,
loving the profit you gained on all of the threshing floors.
2 Neither threshing floor nor winepress will sustain them,
and the new wine will disappoint her.
3 They will not live in the Lord’s land—
Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They won’t present wine offerings to the Lord,
nor will they please him.
Their sacrifices will seem like food for mourners—
everyone who eats them will become unclean;
none of them will enter the Temple of the Lord.
5 “What will you do on the designated holiday,
when the Lord’s festival comes?
6 Look! They have gone away because of the destruction—
Egypt will gather them up,
and Memphis[h] will bury them.
Weeds will overgrow their inheritance,[i]
and thorns will grow[j] in their tents.
7 The time for your judgment has now come;
payday is here—
and Israel knows it.
The prophet is a fool,
and the spiritual man is insane.
Because of your great sin,
the hatred against you[k] is great.
8 While Ephraim stands watch with my God,
the prophet has snares set that will trap his ways,
and hostility lodges in the Temple of his God.
9 They have corrupted themselves deeply,
as did Gibeah[l] in its day.
Therefore God[m] will remember their lawlessness,
and he will pay them back for their sins.
10 “I found Israel,
as one finds[n] grapes in the wilderness;
Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit
gleaned from a fig tree’s first harvest.
When they went to Baal-peor,[o]
they devoted themselves to that filth,
and they became loathsome,
like what they loved.
11 The glory of Ephraim will fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, not even a conception.
12 Even if they rear their children,
I will, in turn, make them childless—
in fact, woe to them
when I turn away from them!
13 Ephraim, as I see it, is like Tyre,
planted in a comfortable place;
Ephraim will bear children
but they will be executed.”
14 Give them, Lord—
What will you give?
You will give them a womb that miscarries and dry breasts.
15 “All of their wickedness started[p] in Gilgal,
because I began to hate them there.
Because of the wickedness of their behavior,
I will drive them from my Temple.
I will not love them anymore;
all their leaders are rebels.
16 Ephraim is blighted;[q]
its roots shriveled.
It can bear no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will kill their cherished offspring.
17 “My God will reject them,
because they did not obey him,
and they will become wanderers among the nations.”
The Coming Destruction
10 “Israel, the overgrown[r] vine, bears fruit like itself;
the more fruitful they become,
the more altars they build.
The better the land,
the more ornate the stone idols.[s]
2 Their hearts are divided;
from now on they are to be found guilty.
God[t] will tear down their altars,
he will destroy their stone idols.[u]
3 From now on they will say,
‘We have no king,
because we did not fear the Lord—
and what would a king do for us?’
4 Their word is falsely given
as they make their agreements;[v]
so judgment springs up
like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.[w]
5 “The residents of Samaria will be terrified
because of the cows[x] of Beth-aven.
Its people will mourn over Beth-aven,[y]
along with the priests who will mourn its glory,
because that glory has departed.[z]
6 Indeed, that glory[aa] will be carried to Assyria—
it will become a present for an avenging king.[ab]
Ephraim will be disgraced,
and Israel will become ashamed of its decision.
7 Samaria’s king will float away
like driftwood on the surface of water.
8 Destroyed will be the high places of Aven,
that are the sin of Israel.
Both thorn and thistle will grow up over their altars.
They will call out to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’
and to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’
9 “From the time of Gibeah,
you have sinned, Israel;
There they took their stand;
the battle at Gibeah could not subdue the lawless.
10 When I’m ready, I will chasten them;
and the people will gather against them,
to imprison them for their two unrighteous acts.”[ac]
Israel Urged to Sow in Righteousness
11 “Ephraim, the well-trained heifer,
loves to thresh grain,
so I will spare her neck.
I will turn Ephraim into a pack animal.
Judah will pull the plow,
and Jacob will turn up the fallow ground.
12 Sow in righteousness in your own interest,
reap in gracious love,
break up your own unprepared ground;
It is now time to inquire of[ad] the Lord,
until he comes to pour out righteousness for you.
13 You have plowed[ae] evil;
you have reaped unrighteousness;
you have eaten the fruit of hypocrisy;
because you trusted in your own direction,
and in the number of your mighty forces.
14 Therefore a disaster will come upon your people,
and all of your fortresses will be ruined.
As Shalman[af] destroyed Beth-arbel in wartime,
mothers were[ag] dashed to pieces
along with their children.
15 The same will happen to you, Bethel,
because of your great evil—
early one morning the king of Israel will be totally silenced.”
God Loves Israel
11 “When Israel was a young child I loved him,
and from Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called out to them,
the farther they fled from me;[ah]
they sacrificed to Baals,[ai]
burning incense to carved images.
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
supporting them by their arms,
but they never knew that I was healing them.
4 I guided them with human kindness,
with loving reins.
I acted toward them
like one who removes a yoke from their neck;
I bent down and fed them.
5 “They will not return to the land of Egypt;
instead, the Assyrian will be their king,
because they kept refusing to repent.
6 The sword will fall on their cities,
consuming and devouring their fortified gates,[aj]
despite their planning.
7 My people are determined to turn away from me;
though they call to the Most High,
no one is worshiping.
8 “How can I give up on you, Ephraim?
I will deliver you, will I not, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
I can’t make you like Zeboim,[ak] can I?
My heart stirs within me;
my compassion also fans into flame!
9 I will not act in my anger;
I will not return to destroy Ephraim,
For I am God,
and not a human—
the Holy One among you—
so I will not enter the city in anger.[al]
10 They will go after the Lord,
who will roar like a lion;
and when he roars,
the children will come trembling from the west.
11 Trembling like a bird, they will come out of Egypt,
and as a dove from the land of Assyria;
and I will settle them in their houses,”
declares the Lord.
12 [am]“Ephraim surrounds me with lies,
and the house of Israel surrounds me[an] with deceit,
But Judah still rules with God,
and remains faithful, along with the godly ones.”
Israel’s Sin
12 [ao]“Ephraim feeds on the wind,
chasing after the eastern winds,
storing up lies and desolation day after day.
They are making a contract with the Assyrians,
and sending oil to Egypt.
2 The Lord accuses Judah,
and will punish Jacob according to his ways;
he will repay him for what he does.
3 He circumvented his brother[ap] in the womb,
and as an adult he fought with God.
4 He even fought the angel and won;
he cried and prayed to him.
Then at Bethel he found him,
and there he spoke with us—
5 the Lord God of the Heavenly Armies—
the Lord is his name.[aq]
6 So you, return to your God;
guard grace and justice,
and look to your God always.
7 “Now as for the merchant,[ar]
deceitful balances remain in his hand,
and he loves to defraud.
8 Ephraim claims,
‘I have become rich,
I have made a fortune!
Because of all my wealth,
no one will find any iniquity or sin in me.’
9 “Yet I remain the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
I will make you live in tents again,
as in the festival of that name.[as]
10 I spoke to the prophets,
giving revelation after revelation,
and employing parables in the prophetic writings.[at]
11 “There’s iniquity in Gilead, isn’t there?
They have become truly vain.
They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;
their altars are like piles of stone in furrowed fields.
12 Jacob fled into the land of Aram;[au]
Israel served there to obtain his wife,
tending sheep to gain[av] his wife.
13 “By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt,
and by a prophet he[aw] was rescued.
14 Ephraim has stirred up violent anger;
therefore the guilt of his blood will remain on him,
and his Lord will repay him for his contempt.”
The Lord’s Anger against Israel
13 “When the tribe of[ax] Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;
and it was exalted within Israel.
But when they offended God by Baal,
they died,
2 but now they are sinning more and more,
crafting idols from melted silver.
Their idols are made with the most exacting skill,
all of it the work of craftsmen.
People[ay] say about them,
‘They offer human sacrifice,
and kiss calf-shaped idols.’[az]
3 Therefore they will be like morning clouds,
like early morning dew that evaporates,
like chaff blown away from the threshing floor,
or like smoke from a chimney.”[ba]
The Lord is Israel’s God
4 “I am the Lord your God
from the land of Egypt,
and you have known no god except for me,
because except for me there is no savior.
5 I took care of[bb] you in the wilderness,
in a waterless land.
6 As their pastures flourished,
all their desires were met.[bc]
As they were satiated,
they became arrogant
and therefore ignored me.
7 “So I will be like a lion to them.
Like a leopard I will stalk them along the road.
8 I will confront them like a bear deprived of her cubs;[bd]
I will tear open their ribs.
I will devour them like a lion—
the wild beasts will rip them apart.
9 “You have destroyed yourself, Israel,
although I remain your help.
10 Now where is your king?
Will he save you in all your cities?
And where are[be] your judges,
about whom you demanded,
‘Give me a king and officials!’?
11 I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him[bf] away in my fury.”
12 “Ephraim’s guilt is on record;
his sin is stored away.
13 When the time of childbirth comes,
he will be so foolish
that he will refuse to be born.”
14 “From the power of Sheol I will rescue them,
from death I will redeem them.
Death, where are[bg] your plagues?
Sheol, where is[bh] your destruction?
My eyes will remain closed to your pleas for[bi] compassion.
15 Even though he is fruitful compared to his relatives,
an east wind will come,
the Lord’s wind storm from the wilderness,
and his spring will evaporate.
His fountain will dry up,
and the Lord’s[bj] wind storm will plunder
all the expensive vessels of the treasury.
16 [bk]Samaria will be held guilty,
because she has rebelled against her God.
By the sword they will fall—
with their infants dashed to pieces,
and their pregnant women torn open.”
A Call to Repentance
14 [bl]“Return, Israel, to the Lord your God,
for you have fallen due to your own iniquity.
2 Bring a prepared speech with you
as you return to the Lord. Say to him:
‘Take away all our[bm] iniquity,
and accept what is good.
Then we will present the fruit[bn] of our lips.
3 Assyria won’t save us;
we won’t be riding on horses,
Nor will we be saying anymore to the work of our hands,
“You are[bo] our God.”
Indeed, in you the orphan finds mercy.’
4 “I will correct their apostasy,
loving them freely,
since my anger will have turned away from them.[bp]
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
Israel[bq] will blossom like a lily,
growing roots like the cedars of[br] Lebanon.
6 Israel’s[bs] branches will spread out,
and its beauty will be like an olive tree,
with its scent like that of Lebanon.
7 Those who live under its protection[bt] will surely return.
Their grain will flourish;
they will blossom like a vine,
and Israel’s[bu] scent will be like wine from Lebanon.
8 “Ephraim, what have I in common with idols?
I have listened and will pay attention to him.
I am like a flourishing cypress;
in me will your fruit be found.”
Concluding Counsel
9 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things.
Whoever is discerning, let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right:
the righteous follow his example,
but the rebellious stumble in them.
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.