The Israelites are threatened with destruction for their impiety and idolatry.

¹ Let there be a trumpet in your throat, like an eagle over the house of the Lord, on behalf of those who have transgressed my covenant and violated my law.

² They will call on me: “O my God, we, Israel, know you.”

³ Israel has thrown away goodness; the enemy will overtake him.

⁴ They have reigned, but not by me. Leaders have emerged, and I did not recognize them. Their silver and their gold, they have made into idols for themselves, so that they might cross over.¹

1. 8:4In this context, interirent does not merely mean ‘to die.’ Literally, this verb means ‘to go between,’ in other words to cross over into the next life. They think that they will be able, through the idolatry of silver and gold, money and power, to pass between this life and the next. They are mistaken.(Conte)

⁵ Your calf, Samaria, has been rejected. My fury has been enraged against them. How long will they be incapable of being cleansed?

⁶ For it is itself also from Israel: a workman made it, and it is not God. For the calf of Samaria will be used for the webs of spiders.¹

1. 8:6In other words, the idolatrous statue of a calf will gather dust and collect cobwebs. Also, these idolatrous practices will fall out of use and will, metaphorically, gather dust.(Conte)

⁷ For they will sow wind and reap a whirlwind. It does not have a firm stalk; the bud will yield no grain. But if it does yield, strangers will eat it.

⁸ Israel has been devoured. Now, among the nations, it has become like an unclean vessel.

⁹ For they have gone up to Assur, a wild ass alone by himself. Ephraim has given presents to his lovers.

¹⁰ But even when they will have brought the nations together for the sake of money, now I will assemble them. And they will rest for a little while from the burden of the king and the leaders.

¹¹ For Ephraim multiplied altars to sin, and sanctuaries have become an offense for him.

¹² I will write to him my intricate laws, which have been treated like strangers.

¹³ They will offer victims, they will immolate flesh and will eat, and the Lord will not accept them. For now he will remember their iniquity, and he will repay their sins: they will be turned back to Egypt.

¹⁴ And Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built shrines. And Judah has increased its fortified cities. And I will send fire upon his cities, and it will devour its structures.¹

1. 8:14Or, ‘And Israel has been neglectful of his Maker.’ Or, ‘And Israel has forgotten his Maker.’ The word ‘aedes’ can mean homes, or shrines, or buildings in general. Since the same verse complains about Israel’s shrines, the fire burns the shrines as well as the homes and other buildings.(Conte)