1 ARST Yahweh says, “Get a trumpet and blow it. There are enemies swooping down over my people, as an eagle swoops down over a victim. This is because my people have left my covenant with them and have violated the law I gave them. BSB BSB: Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.
2 ARST My people Israel cry out to me and say, ‘Our God, we are loyal to you!’ BSB BSB: Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!”
3 ARST But the people of Israel have thrown away what is good, so their enemies will chase after them. BSB BSB: But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.
4 ARST Israel has appointed kings for themselves, but they did not consult with me about it. They chose their own kings without asking me to approve them. They took their silver and gold and formed them into the idols they worshiped, but the people will perish as a result.” BSB BSB: 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 ARST The prophet says, “Yes, Yahweh has rejected your idol, you people of Samaria—an idol made in the form of a calf!” Yahweh says, “Perhaps these people will never again be innocent of evildoing. I am very angry with them! BSB BSB: He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 ARST The shame of it is that this idol came from Israel! A craftsman made it. It is only an idol; it cannot be the true and living God! I will ensure that someone will smash it to bits. BSB BSB: 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 ARST This is because these people do useless things, so something terrible will destroy them. Their grain standing in the fields will give no harvest. And even if it does, foreign soldiers will eat everything it produces. BSB BSB: For they sow the wind, and they shall 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 ARST Other nations have destroyed Israel’s power. Now Israel is like an old, broken pot that no one wants. BSB BSB: Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.
9 ARST They asked the king of Assyria for help; they were like a wild donkey wandering off by itself. The people of Israel have tried to pay other nations to protect them. BSB BSB: For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 ARST Although they do this, I will soon gather them up to destroy them. They will begin to become poor because they will have to pay money to Assyria’s king. BSB BSB: 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 ARST The people of Ephraim have built many altars on which to offer sacrifices for their sins; however, these altars have become places where the people commit terrible sins against me. BSB BSB: Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.
12 ARST Even if I wrote out for the people of Israel my laws ten thousand times, they would refuse to obey them. They would say they had never heard of them. BSB BSB: Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.
13 ARST Let us think about the sacrifices that they give to me. They sacrifice the meat and then they eat it; but I, Yahweh, am not pleased with those sacrifices. I will think about their sins and will punish the people for them. I will make them go back to Egypt. BSB BSB: Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they 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 ARST And why has this happened? The people of Israel have forgotten me, the God who made them a nation. Instead of honoring me, they have built huge homes to live in. And instead of worshiping Yahweh, the people of Judah have built walls around their cities for protection. So this is what I, Yahweh, will do: I will send a fire that will destroy all their palaces and all their fortified cities.” BSB BSB: 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.