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Israel will Reap the Whirlwind

¹ Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.² Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!”³ But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.⁴ They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.⁵ He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?⁶ For this thing is from Israel—a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.⁷ Indeed, they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.

⁸ Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.¹⁰ Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.¹¹ Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.¹² Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.¹³ Though they offer sacrifices given to Me and eat the meat, 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 palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.