Chronological

8 ¶ Set the shofar to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law.

² Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we have known thee.

³ Israel has cast off the good; the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴ They have reigned, but not by me; they have made dominion, and I knew it not; of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols that they may be cut off.

⁵ Thy calf, O Samaria, has cast thee off; my anger has been kindled against them until they could no longer be absolved.

⁶ For it is of Israel; and a workman made it who is not God: because the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

⁷ For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; they shall have no harvest; the fruit shall yield no meal: if so be it yields, the strangers shall swallow it up.

⁸ ¶ Israel shall be swallowed up; soon they shall be among the Gentiles as a vessel in which there is no pleasure.

⁹ For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass thinking only of himself; Ephraim has hired lovers.

¹⁰ Even though they hire the Gentiles, now I will gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king and of the princes.

¹¹ Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, the altars shall be a sin unto him.

¹² I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as strange things.

¹³ In the sacrifices of my gifts they sacrificed flesh and ate; but the LORD does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and visit their sins; they shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴ For Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built temples; and Judah has multiplied fenced cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

9 ¶ Do not rejoice, O Israel, for joy, as the peoples; for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved the salary of a harlot upon every threshing floor.

² The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

³ They shall not remain in the land of the LORD; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and to Assyria where they shall eat unclean food.

⁴ They shall not pour out wine unto the LORD, neither shall he take pleasure in their sacrifices; as the bread of mourners shall they be unto them; all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread shall not enter into the house of the LORD because of their soul.

⁵ What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

⁶ For, behold, they have left because of the destruction; Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: nettles shall possess in inheritance that which is desirable of their silver; thorns shall grow up in their dwellings.

⁷ ¶ The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is a fool, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

⁸ The watchman of Ephraim regarding my God, the prophet, is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, hatred in the house of his God.

⁹ They have arrived at the depths, they have corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sin.

¹⁰ I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the early fruit of the fig tree in her beginning; but they went in unto Baalpeor and separated themselves unto shame and made themselves as abominable as that which they loved.

¹¹ ¶ As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth even from the womb and from the conception.

¹² Though they bring up their sons, yet I will bereave them, that there shall not be a man left; yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

¹³ Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his sons to the murderer.

¹⁴ Give them, O LORD, that which thou must give them; give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵ All their wickedness was in Gilgal, for there I took a dislike to them; for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will never love them again: all their princes are disloyal.

¹⁶ Ephraim was smitten, their root is dried up; they shall bear no more fruit; even though they bring forth, yet I will slay even the desirable fruit of their womb.

¹⁷ My God will cast them away because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the Gentiles.

10 ¶ Israel is an empty vine. Shall he bring forth fruit unto himself? According to the multiplication of his fruit he has multiplied altars; according to the goodness of his land they have bettered their statues.

² Their heart has wandered; now they shall be found guilty: he shall break down their altars, he shall destroy their statues.

³ For now they shall say, We have no king, because we did not fear the LORD; what then should a king do to us?

⁴ They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment shall spring up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn because of the calf, and the religious persons thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, which shall be made to vanish away.

⁶ It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jareb: Ephraim shall be ashamed, and Israel shall be confused at his own counsel.

⁷ As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the surface of the waters.

⁸ And the altars of Aven shall be destroyed, the sin of Israel: the thorn and the thistle shall grow upon their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

⁹ ¶ O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah; there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the sons of iniquity did not overtake them.

¹⁰ And I shall chastise them as I desire; and the peoples shall gather themselves over them, when they shall be bound in their two furrows.

¹¹ Ephraim is a heifer that is taught and loves to tread out the wheat; but I shall pass over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to draw; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.

¹² Sow yourselves unto righteousness, reap yourselves unto mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is the time to seek the LORD until he comes and teaches you righteousness.

¹³ Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye shall eat the fruit of lies because thou didst trust in thy way and in the multitude of thy mighty men.

¹⁴ Therefore, in thy peoples a tumult shall arise, and all thy fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her sons.

¹⁵ So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness; in the morning the king of Israel shall utterly be cut off.

11 ¶ When Israel was a boy, I loved him and called my son out of Egypt.

² As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

³ Even with all this I guided the feet of this same Ephraim, taking them by their arms; but they did not know that I cared for them.

⁴ I drew them with human cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those that raise the yoke from upon their cheeks, and I fed them.

⁵ He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king because they refused to be converted.

⁶ And the sword shall fall upon his cities and shall consume his villages and devour them because of their own counsels.

⁷ Meanwhile, my people adhere to the rebellion against me though they call unto me upon High; absolutely none at all wish to exalt me.

⁸ ¶ How must I leave thee, Ephraim? how shall I give thee up, Israel? how could I make thee as Admah? nor set thee as Zeboim? my heart churns within me; all my compassion is inflamed.

⁹ I will not execute the fierceness of my anger; I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee; and I will not enter into the city.

¹⁰ They shall walk after the LORD; he shall roar like a lion; when he shall roar, then the sons shall come trembling from the west.

¹¹ As a bird they shall move speedily out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.

¹² Ephraim compasses me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah yet rules with God and is faithful with the saints.

12 ¶ Ephraim feeds on wind and follows after the east wind; he daily increases lies and desolation because they made a covenant with the Assyrians, and the oil is carried into Egypt.

² The LORD also has a controversy with Judah to visit Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

³ He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and with his strength he overcame the angel;

⁴ yea, he dominated the angel and prevailed; he wept and made supplication unto him; he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us;

⁵ but the LORD is God of the hosts; the LORD is his memorial.

⁶ Therefore be thou converted unto thy God; keep mercy and judgment, and in thy God wait continually.

⁷ ¶ He is a merchant who has the balances of deceit in his hand; he loves to oppress.

⁸ And Ephraim said, Surely I have become rich, I have found riches for myself; no one shall find iniquity in me, nor sin in all my labours.

⁹ But I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt; I will yet make thee to dwell in tents as in the days of the solemn feast.

¹⁰ I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the hand of the prophets.

¹¹ Is Gilead iniquity? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

¹² But Jacob fled into the land of Aram, and Israel served for his wife, and for his wife he was a pastor.

¹³ And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.

¹⁴ Ephraim provoked God to anger with bitterness: therefore his blood shall be spilled upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord repay unto him.

13 ¶ When Ephraim spoke everyone feared, he was exalted in Israel; but he was found guilty in Baal and died.

² And now they sin more and more, and of their silver they have made molten images according to their own intelligence, idols, all of it the work of the craftsmen; they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

³ Therefore they shall be as the morning mist and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor and as the smoke out of the chimney.

⁴ Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt; therefore thou shalt know no God other than me, nor any other saviour but me.

⁵ ¶ I knew thee in the wilderness, in the dry land.

⁶ In their pastures, they filled themselves; they were satisfied, and their heart was exalted; for this reason they have forgotten me.

⁷ Therefore I will be unto them as a lion; as a tiger in the way I will observe them:

⁸ I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps and will rend the veil of their heart, and there I will devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them apart.

⁹ ¶ O Israel, thou hast caused thyself to become lost, but in me is thine help.

¹⁰ Where is thy king, that may save thee with all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou didst say, Give me a king and princes?

¹¹ I gave thee a king in my anger and took him away in my wrath.

¹² The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

¹³ The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him; he is an unwise son; for a long time now he should not have stopped short at the very breaking forth of birth.

¹⁴ I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy end; O Sheol, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from my eyes.

¹⁵ Though he be fruitful among his brethren, the east wind shall come; the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up; he shall spoil the treasure of all the vessels of desire.

¹⁶ Samaria shall be condemned; for she has rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped open.

14 ¶ O Israel, become converted unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

² Take with you words, and be converted unto the LORD; say unto him, Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips.

³ Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods, for in thee the fatherless finds mercy.

⁴ ¶ I will heal their rebellion; I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from them.

⁵ I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall flourish as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

⁶ His branches shall spread, and his glory shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

⁷ Those that shall sit under his shadow shall return; they shall be given life as the wheat, and they shall flourish as the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

⁸ ¶ Ephraim shall then say, What have I to do any more with idols? I will hear him and gaze upon him; I will be unto him like a green fir tree; of me shall thy fruit be found.

⁹ Who is wise that he might understand this? and prudent that he might know this? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the rebellious shall fall therein.