Chronological
Idols Thrown Down
8 “Put a shofar to your mouth!
Like a vulture he comes
against the house of Adonai.
For they overstepped My covenant
and transgressed My Torah.
2 Will they cry out to Me,
‘My God, we—Israel—knew You’?[a]
3 Israel has rejected goodness—
an adversary will pursue him.
4 They crowned kings, but not by Me.
They appointed princes
I did not approve.
Their silver and gold they made into idols—
just so they would be cut down.
5 Samaria! Your calf is thrown down!
My anger is kindled against them!
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For a craftsman from Israel made it,
so it is no god.
For the calf of Samaria will be splinters.
7 “For they sow wind, and reap a whirlwind.
There is no mature grain—
the sprout yields no meal.
Should it produce anything,
strangers would swallow it up.
8 Israel has been swallowed up!
Now they are among the nations,
like an ornament with no delight in it.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey alone by itself.
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Although they hire among the nations,
I will now round them up.
So they will begin to decrease
under the burden of king and princes.
11 “When Ephraim multiplied altars
for making sin offerings,
they became his altars for sinning.
12 Though I were to write out for him
ten thousand things from My Torah,
they are regarded as something strange.
13 Sacrifices are gifts for Me—
should they sacrifice meat and then eat it?
Adonai will not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity
and punish their sin—
they will return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built temples,
while Judah has multiplied fortified cities.
So I will send fire upon its cities
that will consume their citadels.”
Days of Desolation Are Coming
9 Do not rejoice, O Israel,
do not celebrate like the peoples—
for so you have gone whoring away from your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s pay,
on every grain-threshing-floor.
2 Threshing-floor and wine-press will not sustain them,
and new wine will fail her.
3 They will not dwell in Adonai’s land.
Instead Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They will pour no wine-offerings to Adonai—
they would not be pleasing to Him.
Their sacrifices will be like
the bread of mourners for them.
All that eat it will be defiled,
for their bread is for their appetite,
not coming into the House of Adonai.
5 What will you do for a moed
or for the day of Adonai’s feast?
6 Look, even if they escape the desolation,
Egypt will gather them up;
Memphis will bury them.
And their precious silver treasures?
Weeds will possess them.
Thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;
the days of retribution have come.
Let Israel know! The prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is mad!
For great is your iniquity
and great the hostility.
8 Ephraim is a watchman with my God,
a prophet.
A bird catcher’s trap is on all his paths.
Hostility is 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 sin.
10 “Like grapes in the wilderness
I found Israel.
Like early fruit on a fig tree in its first season
I saw your fathers.
They came to Baal-peor
and devoted themselves to shame.
So they became as detestable
as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory flies away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 For if they should raise their children,
I would make them childless to the last man.
Yes, woe to them
when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen,
is like Tyre, planted in a meadow,
but Ephraim will bring his children out to the slayer.”
14 Give them, Adonai, what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dried up breasts.
15 “All their wickedness is at Gilgal,
for there I despised them.
Because of their wicked practices,
I will drive them out of My House.
I will love them no more.
All their princes are rebellious.
16 Ephraim is blighted;
their root is withered;
they bear no fruit.
Even if they bring forth children,
I will slay the cherished ones in their wombs.”
17 My God will cast them off,
since they did not listen to Him.
So they will become wanderers among the nations.
Israel to be Shamed in Captivity
10 A luxuriant vine is Israel,
who produces fruit for himself.
Like the abundance of his fruit
he has multiplied his altars.
Like the goodness of his land,
they made beautiful sacred pillars.
2 Their heart became smooth[b].
Now they will bear their guilt.
He will break down their altars.
He will destroy their sacred pillars.
3 Surely now they will say: “We have no king,
for we have not feared Adonai.
The king—what can he do for us?”
4 They spoke words—
empty oaths to make a covenant.
But judgment springs up as hemlock
in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria will quarrel
over the calves of Beth-aven.
Indeed its people will mourn over it,
but its priests will tremble over it.
For its glory will surely depart from it.
6 It also will be carried to Assyria
as tribute to a warring king.
Ephraim will receive shame
and Israel will be put to shame by its own counsel.
7 Samaria is being cut off.
Her king is like a splinter on the surface of the water.
8 The high places of Aven,
the sin of Israel will be destroyed.
Thorns and thistles will come up on their altars.
And they will say to the mountains: “Cover us!”
And to the hills: “Fall on us!”[c]
9 “From the days of Gibeah,
you have sinned, O Israel.
There they took their stand.
Will not war over sons of iniquity
overtake them in Gibeah?
10 When I desire,
I will chasten them,
and peoples will gather against them
when they are yoked to their two sins.
11 Though Ephraim is a trained heifer
that loves to thresh,
I put a yoke
over her fair neck.
I will make Ephraim pull;
Judah will plow;
Jacob will drag a harrow by himself.”
Plow Up Your Ground
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness.[d]
Reap in accord with covenant love.
Break up your unplowed ground.
For it is time to seek Adonai,
until He comes
and showers righteousness on you.
13 You have plowed up wickedness,
you have reaped iniquity.
You have eaten the fruit of delusion,
for you have trusted in your own way,
in the multitude of your mighty men.
14 A tumult will arise among your people.
All your strongholds will be demolished,
as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel in the day of battle,
when a mother was dashed in pieces with her children.
15 Just so has Bethel done to you
because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
will be utterly cut off.
My Son Called Out
11 “When Israel was a youth I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called My son.[e]
2 They called out to them
but they departed from their presence.
They kept sacrificing to the Baalim
and burning incense up to idols.
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk.
I took them on My arms.
But they never acknowledged
that I had healed them.
4 With human cords I was drawing them,
with bonds of love,
and I became to them as One lifting a yoke from their jaws.
I bent down to them and fed them.
5 He will not return to the land of Egypt,
but the Assyrian will be his king—
because they refused to return.
6 So a sword will fall on his cities,
and destroy and devour his gate bars
because of their own counsels.
7 So My people are bent on turning from Me.
Although they are being called upwards,
none will rise up.
8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I set you as Zeboim?
My heart is turning over within Me.
My compassions are kindled.
9 I will not vent My fierce anger.
I will not again destroy Ephraim.
For I am God—not a man—
the Holy One in the midst of you,
and I will not come in fury.”
10 They will walk after Adonai.
He will roar like a lion.
Indeed, He will roar
and the children will come trembling from the west.
11 “They will come trembling
like a bird out of Egypt,
like a dove out of the land of Assyria,
and I will settle them in their houses.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
Ephraim Multiplies Lies
12 “Ephraim surrounded Me with lies[f]
and the house of Israel with deceit.”
Though Judah roams restlessly with God,
yet he is faithful with holy things.[g]
2 Ephraim is grazing on wind
and pursuing the east wind.
All day he multiplies lies and ruin:
making[h] a pact with Assyria,
while carrying oil to Egypt.
3 Adonai also has a dispute with Judah:
He will punish Jacob for his ways,
repaying him for his deeds.
4 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel,
and in his vigor he strove with God.
5 Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won;
he wept and sought his favor.
At Bethel he will find us,
and there He will speak with us.
6 Even Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot—
Adonai is His memorial-Name.
7 So you should return to your God,
keep covenant loyalty and justice,
and wait for your God continually.
8 A merchant loves to extort,
with deceptive balances in his hand.
9 Now Ephraim has said:
“How rich I have become! I found wealth by myself.
I won’t be guilty of any sin with any of my property.”
10 “Yet I have been Adonai your God,
since the land of Egypt.
I will yet again make you dwell in tents,
as in the days of the moed.
11 I also spoke through the prophets
and I multiplied visions.
Now through the prophets
I will make parables.
12 Since Gilead is full of iniquity,
they are utterly worthless.
In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls—
even their altars will become heaps of rocks
along the furrows of My field.”
13 Now Jacob fled to the field of Aram,
when Israel served for a wife—
yes, he kept watch for a wife.
14 So by a prophet Adonai brought Israel up out of Egypt,
and by a prophet he was kept.
15 Ephraim has provoked bitter anger,
so his bloodguilt will remain on him—
his Lord will repay him for his contempt.
No Other Savior
13 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling.
He exalted himself in Israel,
but he became guilty through Baal, and died.
2 But now, they sin more and more.
They made themselves molten images,
idols skillfully made from their silver,
all of them the work of the craftsmen.
They say about them:
“Let those who sacrifice kiss the calves.”
3 Therefore they will be like morning clouds,
like dew passing away early,
like chaff blown from the threshing-floor,
or like smoke from a chimney.
4 “Yet I have been Adonai your God
since the land of Egypt.
You should know no God but Me,
and there is no Savior apart from Me.[i]
5 I Myself knew you in the wilderness,
in a land of terrible drought.
6 While they were fed, they were satisfied.
Filled, their hearts became haughty.
Therefore they forgot Me.
7 So I became like a lion to them—
like a leopard lying in wait by the way.
8 I will meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs,
and I will tear open their chests.
There I will devour them like a lioness.
A beast of the field will rip them to shreds.
9 It has corrupted you, O Israel,
for you are against Me—against your Helper!
10 Where then is your king?
So, will he save you in all your cities?
Or your judges, to whom you said:
‘Give me a king and princes!’
11 I give you a king in My anger,
and take him away in My wrath.
12 Ephraim is bound by iniquity;
his sin is treasured up.
13 Pains of birth come on him.
He is not a wise son.
When the time comes,
he should not delay at the opening of the womb.
14 Should I ransom them from the hand of Sheol?
Should I redeem them from death?
O death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?[j]
Comfort is hidden from My eyes.”
15 Because he is the son of kinsmen,
he should have been fruitful.
An east wind will come—the wind from Adonai,
coming up from the wilderness.
His spring will become dry,
and his fountain will dry up.
He will plunder the treasury
of every precious vessel.
Salvation Like Dew for Israel
14 Samaria will bear her guilt,[k]
for she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
their infants dashed to pieces,
their pregnant women ripped open.
2 Return O Israel, to Adonai your God,
for you have stumbled in your iniquity.
3 Take words with you and return to Adonai.
Say to Him: “Take away all iniquity,
and accept what is good,
so we may repay with offerings[l] of our lips:
4 ‘Assyria will not save us.
We will not ride on horses,
and we will never again say, “Our god,”
to the work of our hands,
for with You, orphans find mercy.’”
5 “I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely,
for My anger will turn away from him.
6 I will be like dew for Israel.
He will blossom like a lily,
and thrust out his roots like Lebanon.
7 His tender shoots will spread out.
His beauty will be like an olive tree
and his fragrance will be like Lebanon.
8 Those dwelling in his shadow will return.
They will grow grain and bud like a vine.
His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
9 Ephraim: “What more are idols to me?
I have responded and observed Him.
I will be like a luxuriant cypress tree.
From me will be found Your fruit.”
10 Who is wise? Let him discern these things.
Who is intelligent? Let him know them.[m]
For the ways of Adonai are straight,
and the just walk in them,
but the wicked stumble in them.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.