¹“Put the shofar to your lips!

Like a vulture [he swoops down] on the house of Adonai ,

because they have violated my covenant

and sinned intentionally against my Torah .

²Will they cry out to me,

‘We are Isra’el, God, we know you’?

³Isra’el has thrown away what is good;

the enemy will pursue him.

⁴They make kings, but without my authority;

they appoint leaders, but without my knowledge.

With their silver and gold they make themselves idols,

but these can lead only to their own destruction.

⁵Your calf, Shomron, has been thrown away;

my fury burns against them.

How long will it be until they are able

to make themselves clean?

⁶Here is what Isra’el produces:

a craftsman makes something — it’s a non-god;

the calf of Shomron will be broken to pieces.

⁷For they sow the wind,

so they will reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no ears,

so it will yield no flour;

and if it does yield any,

foreigners will swallow it up.

⁸Isra’el is swallowed up;

now they are among the Goyim

like a vessel nobody wants.

⁹For they have gone up to Ashur;

like a wild donkey, alone by itself,

Efrayim has bargained for lovers.

¹⁰But even if they bargain among the Goyim ,

now I will round them up.

Soon they will start to feel the burden

of these kings and leaders.

¹¹For Efrayim keeps building altars for sin;

yes, altars are sinful for him.

¹²I write him so many things from my Torah ,

yet he considers them foreign.

¹³They offer me sacrifices of flesh and eat them,

but Adonai does not accept them.

Now he will recall their crimes and punish their sins —

they will return to Egypt.

¹⁴For Isra’el forgot his maker and built palaces;

and Y’hudah made more fortified cities;

but I will send fire on his cities,

and it will consume their strongholds.”