¹ Israel was a spreading vine, rich in fruit. The more his fruit in creased, the more altars he built; the more his land prospered, the more he adorned his sacred stones.

² Their heart is divided! They shall pay for it. Their altars will be thrown down and their sacred stones broken to pieces.

³ Now they say, “We have no king (because we have no fear of God) and what good would a king do us?” ⁴ Let them speak like this, take an oath and make covenants! Their sentence is growing like weeds in a plowed field.

⁵ The people of Samaria tremble for their idols of Bethel; they mourn for their calf as do the priests who were so proud of it. ⁶ The glorious idol has been taken far away, carried off to Assyria as a tribute to the great king. Ephraim will reap the shame of this; the people of Israel will be disgraced. ⁷ As for the king of Sama ria, he has been carried off like foam on water.

⁸ The idolatrous high places – the sin of Israel – will be destroyed. Thorn and thistle will creep over the altars. Then they will say to the mountains: “Cover us,” and to the hills: “Fall on us.”

⁹ Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned and rebelled, Israel. Will not the battle against the evildoers of Gibeah overtake you again? ¹⁰ I shall come and punish you, gathering the nations against you because of your double sin.

Admonition and call to conversion

¹¹ Ephraim is a well-trained heifer fond of threshing; on her neck I shall place a yoke; Ephraim will be harnessed and plowed; the nation of Jacob will break the clods.

¹² Plow new ground, sow for yourselves justice and reap the harvest of kindness. It is the time to go seeking Yahweh until he comes to rain salvation on you.

¹³ For your part you planted wickedness, reaped evil and ate the fruit of falsehood. When you rely on your own strength and your many warriors, confusion will overcome your people. ¹⁴ See, your fortresses are destroyed as when Shalman devastated Beth-arbel; all was crushed. ¹⁵ That is what will happen to you, people of Israel, because of your great evil. The storm will blow away the king of Israel.