Israel Rejects the Good

8 Put to your lips the trumpet

like a vulture over the house of Yahweh,

because they have ⌊broken my covenant⌋a

and rebelled against my law.

2 They cry out to me,

“My God! We, Israel, know you!”

3 Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy will pursue him.

4 They appointed kings, but not through me;

they made officials, but without my knowledge.

With their silver and gold

they made idols for themselves

for theirb own ⌊destruction⌋.c

5 Your calf is rejected,d O Samaria;

my anger burns against them.

How longe will they be incapable of innocence?

6 Because it is from Israel,

an artisan made it,

it is not a god;

for the calf of Samaria

will be broken to pieces.

7 Because they sow the wind,

they will reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain does not have heads;f

it will not yield flour.

And if it would yield,

strangers would devour it.

8 Israel is swallowed up;

now they are among the nations,

like an object that no one desires.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria,

a wild donkey alone to itself;

Ephraim has sold itself for lovers.

10 Even though they have sold themselves to the nations,

now I will gather them.

They will soon writhe

from the burden of kingsg and princes.

11 When Ephraim multiplied altars

to expiate sins,

they became to him altars to sin on.

12 I write for him myriads of my instruction;h

they are regarded as a strange thing.

13 They offer sacrifices of my choicei

and they eat flesh;

Yahweh does not accept them.

Now he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

they will return to Egypt.

14 Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

but I will send fire on his cities

and it will devour her strongholds.