I will destroy you, O Israel! Who is there to help you?

For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, “I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.

Woe to them! For they have fled from me! Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me! I want to deliver them, but they have lied to me.

That idol was made by a workman – it is not God! The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.

Even if they raise their children, I will take away every last one of them. Woe to them! For I will turn away from them.

Very soon they will say, “We have no king since we did not fear the Lord. But what can a king do for us anyway?”

The inhabitants of Samaria will lament over the calf idol of Beth Aven. Its people will mourn over it; its idolatrous priests will wail over it, because its splendor will be taken from them into exile.

For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice; I delight in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings.

When Israel was a young man, I loved him like a son, and I summoned my son out of Egypt.

I will not punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men consort with harlots, they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. It is true: “A people that lacks understanding will come to ruin!”

I will have no pity on her children, because they are children conceived in adultery.

They will eat, but not be satisfied; they will engage in prostitution, but not increase in numbers; because they have abandoned the Lord by pursuing other gods.

Israel has rebelled like a stubborn heifer! Soon the Lord will put them out to pasture like a lamb in a broad field!

They have committed treason against the Lord, because they bore illegitimate children. Soon the new moon festival will devour them and their fields.

Ephraim will be oppressed, crushed under judgment, because he was determined to pursue worthless idols.

“Come on! Let’s return to the Lord! He himself has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us! He has injured us, but he will bandage our wounds!

The company of priests is like a gang of robbers, lying in ambush to pounce on a victim. They commit murder on the road to Shechem; they have done heinous crimes!

They have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey that wanders off. Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers.

Even though they have hired lovers among the nations, I will soon gather them together for judgment. Then they will begin to waste away under the oppression of a mighty king.

Although Ephraim has built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning!