Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

¹Set ethe trumpet to your lips!

One flike a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because gthey have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

²To me they cry,

h“My God, we—Israel—know you.”

³Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴iThey made kings, jbut not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.

⁵kI have1 spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

lHow long will they be incapable of innocence?

⁶For it is from Israel;

a craftsman made it;

it is not God.

kThe calf of Samaria

mshall be broken to pieces.2

⁷For nthey 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,

ostrangers would devour it.

⁸pIsrael is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

as qa useless vessel.

⁹For rthey have gone up to Assyria,

sa wild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

¹⁰Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And tthe king and princes ushall soon writhe

because of the tribute.

¹¹Because Ephraim vhas multiplied altars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

¹²wWere I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

¹³As for my sacrificial offerings,

xthey sacrifice meat and eat it,

but the Lord does not accept them.

yNow he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

zthey shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴For 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.