1
Israel is an exhausted vine, he maketh fruit equal◦ to himself; according··to the multitude of his fruit he has multiplied the altars; according··to the goodness of his land they have made··good the statues.
2
Their heart is parted; now shall they be··guilty; He◦ shall overturn* their altars, He shall devastate their statues.
3
For now they shall say, We have no king, because◦ we feared not Jehovah; and what should the king do to us?
4
They have spoken words, making· vain ·oaths in cutting◦ a covenant; and judgment shall flourish as gall* upon the furrows of the field.
5
The neighbors◦ of Samaria shall be··afraid because of the heifers of Beth-aven; for the people of it shall mourn over it, and the idolatrous··priests of it that rejoiced on it, for▵ the glory of it, because◦ it is exiled from it.
6
It shall be also brought◦ unto Assyria for a gift··offering to king Jareb; Ephraim shall receive◦ shame, and Israel shall be··ashamed of his own counsel.
7
Samaria is cut··off◦, her king is as the foam on the faces of the waters.
8
And the high··places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be blotted··out; the thorn and the thistle shall go··up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
9
Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah; there they stood; the battle in Gibeah against the sons of iniquity did not overtake them.
10
It is in My longing that I should chastise them; and the peoples shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two eyes.
11
And Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught, loving to thresh; and I◦ passed upon the goodness of her neck; I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, Jacob shall harrow.
12
Sow for yourselves for justice, harvest according to mercy; newly··plow for yourselves newly··plowed ground; and it is time to inquire after Jehovah, until He come and instruct you with justice.
13
You have plowed wickedness, you have harvested perversity; you have eaten the fruit of denial; for thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy heroes.
14
And an uproar shall arise among◦ thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be devastated, as Shalman devastated Betharbel in the day of battle; a mother was dashed upon her sons*.
15
In··this··manner shall Bethel do to you on··account··of◦ the evil, your evil; in the dawn being cut··off◦ shall the king of Israel be cut··off◦.
