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¹ Ephraim continually feeds on the wind;
he chases the east wind all day;
he multiplies lies and violence.
They make treaties with Assyria,
and send olive oil as tribute to Egypt.
² The Lord also has a covenant lawsuit against Judah;
he will punish Jacob according to his ways
and repay him according to his deeds.

³ In the womb he attacked his brother;
in his manly vigor he struggled with God.
⁴ He struggled with an angel and prevailed;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found God at Bethel,
and there he spoke with him!
⁵ As for the Lord God Almighty,
the Lord is the name by which he is remembered!
⁶ But you must return to your God,
by maintaining love and justice,
and by waiting for your God to return to you.

⁷ The businessmen love to cheat;
they use dishonest scales.
⁸ Ephraim boasts, "I am very rich!
I have become wealthy!
In all that I have done to gain my wealth,
no one can accuse me of any offense that is actually sinful."
⁹ "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt;
I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old.
¹⁰ I spoke to the prophets;
I myself revealed many visions;
I spoke in parables through the prophets."
¹¹ Is there idolatry in Gilead?
Certainly its inhabitants will come to nothing!
Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?
Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!

¹² Jacob fled to the country of Aram,
then Israel worked to acquire a wife;
he tended sheep to pay for her.
¹³ The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet,
and due to a prophet Israel was preserved alive.
¹⁴ But Ephraim bitterly provoked him to anger;
so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed,
his Lord will repay him for the contempt he has shown.