1Put the trumpet to thy mouth! Like an eagle cometh an enemy against the house of Jehovah, Because they have transgressed my covenant, And have rebelled against my law.
2They shall say to me, My God, we know thee, we, thine Israel!
3Israel hath cast away what is good; The enemy shall pursue him.
4They have set up kings, but not by me; They have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made themselves idols, That they may be brought to destruction.
5An abomination is thy calf, O Samaria! Mine anger is kindled against them; How long will it be ere they can attain to purity!
6For from Israel it came; The workman made it, and it is no God; Yea, into fragments shall the calf of Samaria be broken.
7They have sown the wind, And they shall reap the whirlwind. They shall have no standing harvest; The ear shall yield no meal; If perchance it yield, strangers shall devour it.
8Israel is swallowed up; Soon shall they become among the nations As a vessel which no one desireth.
9For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a solitary wild-ass; Ephraim hireth lovers;
10But though they hire among the nations, Soon will I gather the nations against them; Then shall they rest a little while from the burden of their king, and their princes!
11Ephraim hath built many altars for sin, Therefore shall he have altars for sin.
12Though I write for him many laws, They are accounted as a strange thing;
13As to the sacrifices which they should offer me, they slay flesh and eat it; Jehovah hath no pleasure in them. Now will he remember their iniquity, And punish their sins; To Egypt shall they return.
14For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and builded palaces, And Judah hath multiplied fenced cities; But I will send a fire upon his cities, And it shall devour his palaces.