1 Set the horn to your lips! Like an eagle one comes over the house of the LORD, because they have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law.
2 To me they cry out, "My God, we know you, we, Israel!"
3 Israel has thrown away what is good; an enemy will chase him.
4 They set up kings, but not from me; they appointed princes, but without my knowledge. Of their silver and their gold they made idols for themselves, to their own cutting off.
5 He has cast off your calf, Samaria; my anger burns against them. How long will they be unable to attain innocence?
6 For it too came from Israel: a craftsman made it, and it is no God; the calf of Samaria will become splinters.
7 For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. A stalk with no ear, it will make no meal; and if it did make any, foreigners would swallow it.
8 Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations like a pot nobody wants.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey wandering alone; Ephraim has paid for lovers.
10 Even though they pay among the nations, now I will gather them in; and they will begin to dwindle under the burden of the king of princes.
11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, his altars have become for him occasions of sin.
12 I write for him the many things of my law, but they are regarded as foreign.
13 They offer up sacrifices as gifts to me, sacrifice flesh and eat it; the LORD finds no pleasure in them. Now he will call their iniquity to mind and punish their sins; back to Egypt they will go.
14 Israel has forgotten the one who made him and has built palaces; Judah has added fortified city after city; yet I will send fire upon his cities, and it will eat up their strongholds.