¹ When Ephraim spoke, a horror seized Israel: and he sinned in Baal and died.

² And now they have sinned more and more : and they have made to themselves a molten thing of their silver as the likeness of idols: the whole is the work of craftsmen: to these that say: Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves.

³ Therefore they shall be as a morning aloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the dust that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

⁴ But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt know no God but me, and there is no saviour beside me.

⁵ I knew thee in the desert, in the land of the wilderness.

⁶ According to their pastures they were filled, and were made full: and they lifted up their heart, and have forgotten me.

⁷ And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians.

⁸ I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: and I will devour them there as a lion, the beast of the field shall tear them.

⁹ Destruction is thy own, 0 Israel: thy help is only in me.

¹⁰ Where is thy king? now especially let him save thee in all thy cities: and thy judges, of whom thou saidst: Q Give me kings and princes.

¹¹ I will give thee a king in my wrath, and will take him away in my indignation.

¹² The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hidden.

¹³ The sorrows of a woman in labour snail come upon him, he is an unwise son: for now he shall not stand in the breach of the children.

¹⁴ I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death : O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes.

¹⁵ Because he shall make a separation between brothers: s the Lord will bring a burning wind that shall rise from the desert, and it shall dry up his springs, and shall make his fountain desolate, and he shall carry off the treasure of every desirable vessel.

¹ Israel a vine full of branches, the fruit is agreeable to it: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath multiplied altars, according to the plenty of his land he hath abounded with idols.

² Their heart is divided: now they shall perish: he shall break down their idols, he shall destroy their altars.

³ For now they shall say: We have no king: because we fear not the Lord: and what shall a king do to us?

⁴ You speak words of an unprofitable vision, and you shall make a covenant: and judgment shall spring up as bitterness in the furrows of the field.

⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria have worshipped the king of Bethaven: for the people thereof have mourned over it, and the wardens of its temple that rejoiced over it in its glory because it is departed from it.

⁶ For itself also is carried into Assyria, a present to the avenging king: shame shall fall upon Ephraim, and Israel shall be confounded in his own will.

⁷ Samaria hath made her king to pass as froth upon the face of the water.

⁸ And the high places of the idol, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed: the bur and the thistle shall grow up over their altars: and they shall say to the mountains: Cover us; and to the hills: Fall upon us.

⁹ From the days of Gabaa, Israel hath sinned, there they stood: the battle in Gabaa against the children of iniquity shall not overtake them.

¹⁰ According to my desire I will chastise them: and the nations shall be gathered together against them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.

¹¹ Ephraim is a heifer taught to love to tread out corn, but I passed over upon the beauty of her neck: I will ride upon Ephraim, Juda shall plough, Jacob shall break the furrows for himself.

¹² Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy, break up your fallow ground: but the time to seek the Lord is, when he shall come that shall teach you justice.

¹³ You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lying: because thou hast trusted in thy ways, in the multitude of thy strong ones.

¹⁴ A tumult shall arise among thy people: and all thy fortresses shall be destroyed as Salmana was destroyed, by the house of him that judged Baal in the day of battle, the mother being dashed in pieces upon her children.

¹⁵ So hath Bethel done to you, because of the evil of your iniquities.