¹ Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.

² Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!”

³ But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.

⁴ They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.

⁵ He has rejected your calf,¹ O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?

1. Or calf idol; see 1 Kings 12:29.

⁶ For this thing is from Israel— a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.

⁷ For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.

⁸ Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.

⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim¹ has hired lovers.

1. That is, the northern kingdom of Israel; also in verse 11

¹⁰ Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.

¹¹ Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.

¹² Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.

¹³ Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.

¹⁴ Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.