But you have plowed wickedness; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your chariots; ¹  you have relied ²  on your many warriors.

Woe to them! For they have fled from me! Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me! I want to deliver ¹  them, but they have lied to me.

O Israel, you have sinned since the time ¹  of Gibeah, and there you have remained. Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?

Sound the alarm! ¹  An eagle ²  looms over the temple of the Lord! For they have broken their covenant with me, ³  and have rebelled against my law.

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

I will have no pity on her children, ¹  because they are children conceived in adultery. ² 

I have seen a disgusting thing in the temple of Israel: there Ephraim practices temple prostitution and Judah defiles itself.

They have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey that wanders off. Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers. ¹ 

They have committed treason ¹  against the Lord, because they bore illegitimate children. Soon ²  the new moon festival will devour them and their fields.

Ephraim boasts, ¹  “I am very rich! I have become wealthy! ²  In all that I have done to gain my wealth, ³  no one can accuse me of any offense ⁴  that is actually sinful.” ⁵ 

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. ¹ 

My God will reject them, for they have not obeyed him; so they will be fugitives among the nations.

I know Ephraim all too well; ¹  the evil of ²  Israel is not hidden from me. For you have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim; Israel has defiled itself. ³ 

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?”

They have sunk deep into corruption ¹  as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their wrongdoing. He will repay them for their sins.

You stumble day and night, and the false prophets stumble with you; You have destroyed your own people! ¹ 

You have destroyed ¹  my people by failing to acknowledge me! Because you refuse to acknowledge me, ²  I will reject you as my priests. Because you reject ³  the law of your God, I will reject ⁴  your descendants.

They do not realize ¹  that I remember all of their wicked deeds. Their evil deeds have now surrounded them; their sinful deeds are always before me. ² 

O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do ¹  with idols anymore! I will answer him and care for him. I am like ²  a luxuriant cypress tree; ³  your fruitfulness comes from me! ⁴ 

The more the priests increased in numbers, the more they rebelled against me. They have turned ¹  their glorious calling into a shameful disgrace!