Study Desk

A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their altars.

Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the Lord .

With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord , but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.

I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. In their distress they will beg my favor:

when I would heal Israel, the corruption of Ephraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely, the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside.

By their wickedness they make the king glad, and the officials by their treachery.

All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen; none of them calls upon me.

Ephraim has become like a dove, silly and without sense; they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria.

They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; they gash themselves for grain and wine; they rebel against me.

It was I who trained and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me.

Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord , because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law.

They made kings, but not through me; they set up princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction.

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, foreigners would devour it.

Though they bargain with the nations, I will now gather them up. They shall soon writhe under the burden of kings and princes.

Though they offer choice sacrifices, though they eat flesh, the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt.

They shall not remain in the land of the Lord ; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food.

They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord , and their sacrifices shall not please him. Such sacrifices shall be like mourners' bread; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the Lord .

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw your ancestors. But they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.

Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars, and destroy their pillars.

For now they will say: "We have no king, for we do not fear the Lord , and a king—what could he do for us?"