The Apostasy of Israel
8 Set the trumpet to your mouth!
One like an eagle is on the house of the Lord,
because they have transgressed My covenant
and rebelled against My law.
2 Israel cries to Me,
“My God, we know You.”
3 Israel has cast off the good;
the enemy will pursue him.
4 They set up kings, but not through Me;
they made princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and gold,
they made idols,
so that they will be cut off.
5 Your calf, O Samaria, is rejected!
My anger is kindled against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For it is from Israel;
a craftsman made it,
and it is not God!
The calf of Samaria
will be broken to pieces.
7 For they sow the wind,
and they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no head
and will yield no flour.
If it were to yield,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up.
Now they are among the nations
as a vessel in which there is no pleasure.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey alone by itself;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Though they hire among the nations,
I will now gather them.
They will begin to diminish due to the burden
of the king of princes.
11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
12 I have written for him the great things of My law,
but they were regarded as a strange thing.
13 For the sacrifices of My offerings,
they sacrifice flesh and eat it;
but the Lord 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 temples,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
so I will send a fire upon his cities,
and it will devour his palaces.
