Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

¹Set the trumpet to your lips!

One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because they have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

²To me they cry,

“My God, we—Israel—know you.”

³Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴They made kings, but not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.

⁵I have1 spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of innocence?

⁶For it is from Israel;

a craftsman made it;

it is not God.

The calf of Samaria

shall be broken to pieces.2

⁷For they sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no flour;

if it were to yield,

strangers would devour it.

⁸Israel is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

as a useless vessel.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,

a wild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

¹⁰Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And the king and princes shall soon writhe

because of the tribute.

¹¹Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

¹²Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

¹³As for my sacrificial offerings,

they sacrifice meat and eat it,

but the Lord does not accept them.

Now he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

they shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴For Israel has forgotten his Maker

and built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

so I will send a fire upon his cities,

and it shall devour her strongholds.