Aa
Israel’s False Hopes
1Put the ram’s horn to your mouth!8:1 Hs 5:8
One like an eagle comes
against the house of the Lord,8:1 Dt 28:49
because they transgress my covenant8:1 Hs 6:7
and rebel against my law.8:1 Hs 4:6; 8:12
2Israel cries out to me,8:2 Hs 7:14
“My God, we know you!”
3Israel has rejected what is good;8:3 Hs 3:5
an enemy will pursue him.

4They have installed kings,8:4 Hs 13:10–11
but not through me.
They have appointed leaders,
but without my approval.
They make their silver and gold8:4 Hs 2:8; 13:1–2
into idols for themselves
for their own destruction.8:4 Lit themselves that it might be cut off
5Your calf-idol8:5 Lit calf8:5 Hs 10:5; 13:2 is rejected, Samaria.8:5 1Kg 12:28–29; Hs 7:1
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?8:5 Ps 19:13; Jr 13:27
6For this thing is from Israel —
a craftsman made it,8:6 Hs 13:2 and it is not God.
The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!

7Indeed, they sow the wind8:7 Hs 10:13
and reap the whirlwind.8:7 Is 66:15; Nah 1:3
There is no standing grain;
what sprouts fails to yield flour.8:7 Hs 2:9
Even if they did,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8Israel is swallowed up!8:8 Jr 51:34
Now they are among the nations
like discarded pottery.8:8 Jr 25:34; Hs 13:15
9For they have gone up to Assyria8:9 Hs 7:11
like a wild donkey going off on its own.
Ephraim has paid for love.8:9 Ezk 16:33
10Even though they hire lovers among the nations,
I will now round them up,
and they will begin to decrease in number8:10 Jr 42:2
under the burden of the king and leaders.8:10 Is 10:8
11When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,8:11 Hs 10:1; 12:11
they became his altars for sinning.
12Though I were to write out for him
ten thousand points of my instruction,8:12 Hs 4:6
they would be8:12 Or Though I wrote out... instruction, they are regarded as something strange.
13Though they offer sacrificial gifts8:13 Hb obscure8:13 Hs 5:6; 9:4
and eat the flesh,8:13 Jr 6:20; 7:21
the Lord does not accept them.
Now he will remember their guilt8:13 Hs 7:2; Lk 12:2; 1Co 4:5
and punish their sins;8:13 Hs 4:9; 9:7
they will return to Egypt.8:13 Hs 9:3,6
14Israel has forgotten his Maker8:14 Hs 2:13; 4:6; 13:6 and built palaces;8:14 Is 9:9–10
Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.
I will send fire on their cities,8:14 Jr 17:27
and it will consume their citadels.