Israel Reaps the Whirlwind
1Put the trumpet to your [a]lips!
Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the Lord,
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And rebelled against My law.
2 They cry out to Me,
“My God, we of Israel know You!”
3 Israel has rejected the good;
The enemy will pursue him.
4 They have set up kings, but not by Me;
They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves,
That [b]they might be cut off.
5 [c]He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying,
“My anger burns against them!”
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For from Israel is even this!
A craftsman made it, so it is not God;
Surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to [d]pieces.
7 For they sow the wind
And they reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no [e]heads;
It yields no [f]grain.
Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up;
They are now among the nations
Like a vessel in which no one delights.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like a wild donkey all alone;
Ephraim has hired [g]lovers.
10 Even though they hire allies among the nations,
Now I will gather them up;
And they will begin to [h]diminish
Because of the burden of the king of princes.
11 Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,
They have become altars of sinning for him.
12 Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law,
They are regarded as a strange thing.
13 As for My sacrificial gifts,
They sacrifice the flesh and eat it,
But the Lord has taken no delight in them.
Now He will remember their iniquity,
And punish them for their sins;
They will return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,
But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.