Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

1To your mouth set the shofar,

as an eagle over the house of YHWH,

because they have transgressed My covenant,

and against My law they have rebelled.

2To Me they cry, “O My God,

Israel, we know You.”

3Israel has rejected the good;

an enemy will pursue him.

4They set up kings, and not from Me;

they made princes, and not ones I knew.

With their silver and gold they made for themselves idols,

that it might be cut off.

5He has rejected your calf,† O Samaria;

My anger burns against them.

Until when will they not

be capable of innocence?

6For it is from Israel.

A workman made it, and it is not God.

Surely the calf of Samaria

will be broken to pieces.

7For the wind they sow

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The stalk is not unto it,

a shoot not yielding flour;

even if it should produce,

strangers would swallow it up!

8Israel is swallowed up;

now they are among the Gentiles,

like a vessel with no delight in it.

9For they have gone up to Assyria;

a wild donkey isolated by himself;

Ephraim,† they have hired lovers.

10Even though they have hired among the nations,

I will now gather them.

And they will begin to diminish

from the burden of the king of princes.

11Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,

they have become unto him altars for sinning.

12Were I to write for him the myriad things of My law,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

13The sacrifices of My gifts they sacrifice,

and the flesh they eat—

YHWH does not accept them.

Now He has in mind their iniquity, and He will attend to their sins:

They will return to Egypt.

14And Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

and I will send fire upon his cities,

and it will devour his palaces.