7 A merchant loves to extortk

with dishonest scales in his hands.l

8 But Ephraim thinks,

“How rich I have become;m

I made it all myself.

In all my earnings,

no one can find any iniquity in men

that I can be punished for!”B

JUDGMENT ON APOSTATE ISRAEL

9 I have been the Lord your God

ever sinceC the land of Egypt.o

I will make you live in tents again,p

as in the festival days.

10 I will speak through the prophetsq

and grant many visions;

I will give parables through the prophets.r

11 Since Gilead is full of evil,s

they will certainly come to nothing.

They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;t

even their altars will be like piles of rocksu

on the furrows of a field.

FURTHER INDICTMENT OF JACOB’S HEIRS

12 Jacob fled to the territory of Aram.v

Israel worked to earn a wife;w

he tended flocks for a wife.x

13 The Lord brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet,y

and Israel was tended by a prophet.

14 Ephraim has provoked bitter anger,z

so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on himaa

and repay him for his contempt.ab