Beginning
8 Set the shofar to thy lips. He [the Assyrian enemy] shall come as a nesher against the Bais Hashem, because they have transgressed My brit (covenant), and committed pesha against My torah.
2 Yisroel shall cry unto Me, Elohai, we know Thee. We, Yisroel!
3 Yisroel hath cast off the thing that is tov; the oyev (enemy) shall pursue him.
4 They have set up melachim, but not from Me; they have made sarim (princes), and I knew it not; of their kesef and their zahav have they made them atzabim (idols), that they may be cut off.
5 Thy egel (calf-idol), O Shomron, I am casting off; Mine anger is kindled against them; how long will they be incapable of nikkayon (innocency, freedom from punishment)?
6 They are from Yisroel! The craftsman made it; therefore it is not Elohim; but the egel of Shomron shall be broken in pieces.
7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; the stalk [of standing grain] hath no tzemach (shoot); it shall yield no kemach (flour); and even if it yielded it, zarim would devour it.
8 Yisroel is swallowed up; now shall they be among the Goyim like a worthless keli (vessel).
9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a pere (wild donkey) off by itself alone; Ephrayim hath sold herself to ahavim (lovers).
10 Yea, though they have bargained among the Goyim, now will I gather them, and they shall begin to diminish on account of the massa (burden) of Melech Sarim.
11 Because Ephrayim hath built many mizbechot for sin, mizbechot shall be unto him to sin.
12 I have written to him the many things of My torah, but they were regarded as a zar (strange thing).
13 They sacrifice basar for the sacrifices of Mine offerings, and eat it; but Hashem accepteth them not; now will He remember their avon (iniquity), and visit punishment on their sins; they shall return to Mitzrayim.
14 For Yisroel hath forgotten His Maker, and buildeth heikhalot; and Yehudah hath multiplied fortified towns; but I will send eish upon his towns, and it shall devour the citadels thereof.
9 Rejoice not, O Yisroel, for joy, as other people; for thou hast gone awhoring from thy G-d, thou hast loved a reward upon every threshing floor.
2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the tirosh shall fail in her.
3 They shall not dwell in Hashem’s land; but Ephrayim shall return to Mitzrayim, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer yayin offerings to Hashem, neither shall they be pleasing unto Him; their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread for their nefesh shall not come into the Beis Hashem.
5 What will ye do in the Yom Mo’ed, and in the Yom Chag Hashem?
6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction; Mitzrayim shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; nettles shall possess their valuables of kesef; thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of pekudah (visitation for divine punishment) are come, the yamim of recompence are come; Yisroel shall know it; the navi is a fool, the ish haruach (spiritual man) is meshuga, for the multitude of thine iniquity and great hatred.
8 The watchman of Ephrayim was with my G-d; but the navi is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the bais of his G-d.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the yamim of Giveah; therefore He will remember their iniquity, He will visit their sins.
10 I found Yisroel like grapes in the midbar; I saw your avot as the bikkurah in the fig tree at her first season; but they went to Ba’al-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.
11 As for Ephrayim, their kavod shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the beten (womb), and from the conception.
12 Though they bring up their banim, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13 Ephrayim, as I saw Tzor, is planted in a pleasant place; but Ephrayim shall bring forth his banim to the murderer.
14 Give them, O Hashem. What wilt Thou give? Give them a miscarrying rechem (womb) and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them; for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of Mine bais, I will love them no more; all their sarim (princes) are sorerim (rebels).
16 Ephrayim is struck, their shoresh (root) is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their beten (womb).
17 My G-d will cast them away, because they did not pay heed unto Him; and they shall be nodedim (wanderers) among the Goyim.
10 Yisroel is a running gefen, he bringeth forth p’ri unto himself; according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the mizbechot; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly matzevot (stone pillars, monuments).
2 Their lev is deceitful; now shall they bear guilt; He shall break down their mizbechot, He shall destroy their matzevot.
3 For now they shall say, We have no Melech, because we feared not Hashem; but if we did have a Melech, what could he do for us?
4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in cutting brit (covenant); thus mishpat springeth up as poisonous herb in the furrows of the sadeh.
5 The inhabitants of Shomron tremble because of the eglot (calf-idols) of Beit-Aven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, likewise the komer (idolatrous priests) over it, who shout for joy over its kavod, for it has gone into the Golus for them.
6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a minchah (present) to the great king; Ephrayim shall receive disgrace, and Yisroel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
7 As for Shomron, her melech will float off like a twig upon the surface of the mayim.
8 The high places also of Aven, the chattat Yisroel, shall be made shmad; the kotz (thorn) and the dardar (thistle) shall come up on their mizbechot; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
9 O Yisroel, thou hast sinned from the yamei Giveah; there they have continued. Did not milchamah (war) overtake the bnei alvah (children of unruliness) in Giveah?
10 When I please, I will chastise them; amim shall be gathered against them, when they are punished for their shtei avon (double iniquity).
11 And Ephrayim is an eglah melummadah (a trained heifer), and loveth to tread out the grain; but I will put a yoke on her fair neck; I will drive Ephrayim; Yehudah shall plow, and Ya’akov shall break his clods.
12 Sow to yourselves in tzedakah, reap in chesed; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Hashem, till He come and rain tzedek upon you.
13 Ye have plowed resha, ye have reaped avlah; ye have eaten the pri kachash (fruit of lies); because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy gibborim (mighty men).
14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be devastated, as Shalman devastated Beit-Arbel on the yom milchamah; the em were dashed in pieces with their banim.
15 So shall Beit-El do unto you because of your great wickedness; in the shachar (dawn) shall the Melech Yisroel utterly be cut off [Isa 53:8].
11 When Yisroel was a na’ar (child), I loved him, and called Beni (My son) out of Mitzrayim [Mt 2:15].
2 The more I called them, the more they went from Me; they sacrificed unto Ba’alim, and burned incense to peselim (graven images).
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephrayim to walk, taking them by their zero’ot; but they knew not that it was I who healed them.
4 I drew them with cords of man, with bands of ahavah; and I was to them as they that ease the ol (yoke) on their jaws, and I bent down to feed them.
5 Will they not return into Eretz Mitzrayim? And will not the Assyrian be his melech, because they refused to make teshuvah.
6 And the cherev shall flash in his towns, and shall destroy his gate bars, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
7 And Ami are bent to backsliding from Me; though they called to the Most High, none at all would exalt Him.
8 How shall I give thee up, Ephrayim? How shall I hand thee over, Yisroel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I make thee as Tzvoyim? Mine lev is turned within Me, My relentings are kindled together.
9 I will not execute Mine charon af, I will not return to destroy Ephrayim; for El ani, and not ish; the Kadosh (Holy One) in the midst of thee; and I will not come in wrath.
10 They shall walk after Hashem; He shall roar like an aryeh; when He shall roar, then the banim shall come trembling from the west.
11 They shall come trembling as a bird out of Mitzrayim, and as a yonah out of Eretz Assyria; and I will place them in their batim (houses), saith Hashem.
12 (12:1) Ephrayim compasseth Me about with kachash (lies), and Bais Yisroel with mirmar (deceit; T.N. See Isa 53:9 which says Moshiach will have no mirmar); but Yehudah still is unbridled with El, and against Kadoshim (Holy One; see Prov 9:10) Who is ne’eman.
12 (12:2) Ephrayim feedeth on wind, and chasing after the east wind; he daily increaseth kazav (lies) and sod (desolation); and cuts brit with the Assyrians, and shemen is sent to Mitzrayim.
2 (3) Hashem hath also a charge against Yehudah, and will visit punishment on Ya’akov according to his ways; according to his doings will He repay him.
3 (4) In the beten (womb) he (Ya’akov) akav (took at the heel [of]) his brother and by his strength he sarah (struggled with, persevered) with Elohim;
4 (5) Yea, he (Yisroel) sarah (had power over) the malach, and prevailed; he wept, and made techinnah unto Him; He found him at Beit-El, and there He spoke with us;
5 (6) Even Hashem Elohei Tzva’os; Hashem is His [memorial] Name!
6 (7) Therefore turn thou to Eloheicha; be shomer over chesed and mishpat and wait on Eloheicha tamid (continually).
7 (8) A Kena’an (merchant), in whose hand are the scales of mirmar (deceit) He loveth to oppress.
8 (9) And Ephrayim boasts, Yet I am become an oisher, I have found me out wealth; in all my gain they shall find none avon (iniquity, offense) in me that would be chet (sin).
9 (10) And I that am Hashem Eloheicha from Eretz Mitzrayim will yet make thee to dwell in oholim, as in the yamei mo’ed [i.e., Sukkot].
10 (11) I have also spoken to the nevi’im, and I have multiplied chazon (vision, revelation, prophecy), and spoken parables by the nevi’im.
11 (12) Is there aven (iniquity) in Gil‘ad? Surely they are vanity; they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their mizbechot are as piles of stones in the furrows of the fields.
12 (13) And Ya’akov fled into the country of Aram, and Yisroel served for an isha, and for an isha he was shomer [over sheep].
13 (14) And by a navi Hashem brought Yisroel out of Mitzrayim, and shomer [Yisroel] a navi was.
14 (15) Ephrayim has provoked bitter anger; therefore shall He leave his blood-guiltiness upon him, and his scorn shall Adonoi of him return and repay unto him.
13 When Ephrayim spoke there was trembling; he was exalted in Yisroel; but when he became guilty in Ba’al, he died.
2 And now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves massekhah (idol) of their kesef, and atzabim according to their faculty of binah (understanding), all of it the work of the craftsmen; they say of them, Let adam that sacrifice kiss calf-idols.
3 Therefore they shall be like the anan boker (morning cloud) and as the early dew that disappears, like the motz (chaff) that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and as the smoke out of the window.
4 Yet I am Hashem Eloheicha from Eretz Mitzrayim, and thou shalt know no Elohim but Me; for there is no Moshia besides Me.
5 I did know thee in the midbar, in the eretz taluvot (land of burning heat).
6 According to their pasture [i.e., as I fed them], so were they filled; they were filled, and their lev became proud; therefore have they forgotten Me.
7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion; as a leopard by the derech will I lie in wait;
8 I will meet them as a dov (bear) that is bereaved of her cubs, and will rip open the covering of their lev, and there will I devour them like a lion; as the wild beast of the sadeh would tear them.
9 O Yisroel, thou art destroyed; because thou art against Me, thine Ezer (Help).
10 Where now is thy melech that he may save thee? Where in all thy cities are thy shofetim of whom thou saidst, Give me a melech and sarim?
11 I gave thee a melech in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath [Isa 53:10].
12 The avon (iniquity) of Ephrayim is bound up; his chattat is lurking.
13 The chevlei yoledah (birth pangs of a woman in childbirth) shall come upon him; he is a ben lo chacham; for when it is time he does not come to the opening of the womb.
14 Should I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Should I redeem them from mavet? O Mavet, where are the dever (pestilence, plague) of thee? O Sheol, where is thy destruction? Nocham (sorrow, compassion, pity) shall be hidden from Mine eyes.
15 Even though he thrives among his achim, an east wind shall come, the Ruach Hashem shall come up from the midbar (desert), and his makor (spring, fountain) shall become dry, and his well shall be dried up; it shall plunder the otzar of every keli chemdah (precious vessel).
16 (14:1) Shomron shall bear guilt; for she hath rebelled against her Elohim; they shall fall by the cherev; their olalim shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped open.
14 1 (2) O Yisroel, return unto Hashem Eloheicha; for thy downfall hast been thine avon (iniquity).
2 (3) Take devarim (words) with you, and turn to Hashem; say unto Him, Take away avon (iniquity), and receive us graciously that we may render the sacrifices of our lips.[MJ 13:15]
3 (4) Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon susim; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are Eloheinu; for in Thee the yatom (orphan) findeth compassion.
4 (5) I will heal their meshuvah (backsliding); I will love them freely; for Mine anger is turned away from him.
5 (6) I will be as the tal (dew) unto Yisroel: he shall blossom as the lily, and strike root as Levanon.
6 (7) His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the zayit (olive tree), and his hod (splendor) as Levanon.
7 (8) They that dwell under his tzel (shade) shall return; they shall revive as the dagan, and grow as the gefen; the remembrance thereof shall be as the yayin of Levanon.
8 (9) Ephrayim shall say, What have I to do any more with atzabim? It is I who answer and look after him; I am like an evergreen cypress. From Me is thy p’ri found.
9 (10) Who is chacham, and he shall have binah of these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? For the Darkhei Hashem are right, and the tzaddikim shall walk in them; but the poshe’im (transgressors) shall fall therein.
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