Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind
Set athe trumpet to your lips!
One blike a vulture is over the house of the Lord,
because cthey have transgressed my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
2 To me they cry,
a“My God, we—Israel—know you.”
3 Israel has spurned the good;
the enemy shall pursue him.
4 aThey made kings, bbut not through me.
They set up princes, but I knew it not.
With their silver and gold they made idols
for their own destruction.
5 aI have spurned your calf, O Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
bHow long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For it is from Israel;
a craftsman made it;
it is not God.
aThe calf of Samaria
bshall be broken to pieces.
7 For athey sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads;
it shall yield no flour;
if it were to yield,
bstrangers would devour it.
8 aIsrael is swallowed up;
already they are among the nations
as ba useless vessel.
9 For athey have gone up to Assyria,
ba wild donkey wandering alone;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Though they hire allies among the nations,
I will soon gather them up.
And athe king and princes bshall soon writhe
because of the tribute.
11 Because Ephraim ahas multiplied altars for sinning,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
12 aWere I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,
they would be regarded as a strange thing.
13 As for my sacrificial offerings,
athey sacrifice meat and eat it,
but the Lord does not accept them.
bNow he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins;
cthey shall return to Egypt.
14 For aIsrael has forgotten bhis Maker
and cbuilt palaces,
and aJudah has multiplied fortified cities;
so dI will send a fire upon his cities,
and it shall devour her strongholds.