1Put the trumpet to your mouth. The enemy comes like an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have broken my covenant and sinned against my law.
2Israel will cry out to me, "My God, we know you."
3Israel has thrown away what is good. The enemy will chase him.
4They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I did not know it. Out of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, and so they will be cut off.
5Your calf, Samaria, has thrown you off. My anger burns against them. How long will it be before they can be innocent?
6For this calf came from Israel too. A workman made it, so it is not God. The calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.
7They have sown the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. The grain has no stalk. The bud will give no flour. And if it does give any, strangers will swallow it up.
8Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a pot that no one wants.
9For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers.
10Yes, though they have hired lovers among the nations, now I will gather them. They will begin to suffer under the burden of the king of princes.
11Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, those altars have become his sin.
12I have written for him the great things of my law, but they counted them as something strange.
13They sacrifice meat for the offerings they bring me, and they eat it, but the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their wrongdoing and punish their sins. They will go back to Egypt.
14For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples. Judah has built many walled cities. But I will send a fire on his cities, and it will burn up their palaces.