2  “Dominion and fear are with God;¹

he makes peace in his high heaven.

3  Is there any number to his armies?

Upon whom does his light not arise?

4  ^qHow then can man be in the right before God?

How can he who is born of woman be pure?

5  Behold, even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure in his eyes;

6  ^rhow much less man, who is a maggot,

and the ^sson of man, who is a worm!”

2  “How you have helped him who has no power!

How you have saved the arm that has no strength!

3  ^tHow you have counseled him who has no wisdom,

and plentifully declared sound knowledge!

4  With whose help have you uttered words,

and ^uwhose breath has come out from you?

5  The dead tremble

under the waters and their inhabitants.

6  ^vSheol is naked before God,²

and Abaddon has no covering.

7  He stretches out the north over the void

and hangs the earth on nothing.

8  He binds up the waters in his thick clouds,

and the cloud is not split open under them.

9  He covers the face of the full moon³

and spreads over it his cloud.

10  He has ^winscribed a circle on the face of the waters

at the boundary between light and darkness.

11  ^xThe pillars of heaven tremble

and are astounded at his rebuke.

12  ^yBy his power he stilled the sea;

by his understanding he shattered ^zRahab.

13  By his wind the heavens were made fair;

his hand pierced ^athe fleeing serpent.

14  Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,

and how small a whisper do we hear of him!

But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

1  when I would heal Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,

and the evil deeds of Samaria,

for they ^odeal falsely;

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid outside.

2  But they do not consider

that I ^premember all their evil.

Now their deeds surround them;

they are before my face.

3  By their evil they make the king glad,

and the princes by their treachery.

4  ^qThey are all adulterers;

they are like a heated oven

whose baker ceases to stir the fire,

from the kneading of the dough

until it is leavened.

5  On the day of our king, the princes

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.

6  For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;

all night their anger smolders;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

7  All of them are hot as an oven,

and they devour their rulers.

All their kings have fallen,

and none of them calls upon me.

8  Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

9  Strangers devour his strength,

and he knows it not;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

and he knows it not.

10  ^rThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;¹

yet they do not return to the Lord their God,

nor seek him, for all this.

11  Ephraim is like a dove,

silly and without sense,

^scalling to Egypt, going to Assyria.

12  As they go, I will spread over them my ^tnet;

I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;

I will ^udiscipline them according to the report made to their congregation.

13  ^vWoe to them, for they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!

I would redeem them,

but they speak lies against me.

14  They do not cry to me from the heart,

but they wail upon their beds;

for grain and wine they ^wgash themselves;

they rebel against me.

15  Although I trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they ^xdevise evil against me.

16  They return, but not upward;²

they are ^ylike a treacherous bow;

their princes shall fall by the sword

because of the insolence of their tongue.

This shall be their derision ^zin the land of Egypt.

1  Set the trumpet to your lips!

One ^alike a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because they have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

2  To me they cry,

“My God, we—Israel—^bknow you.”

3  Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

4  They made kings, but not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.

5  I have³ spurned your ^ccalf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of innocence?

6  For it is from Israel;

a ^dcraftsman made it;

it is not God.

The calf of Samaria

shall be broken to pieces.⁴

7  For they sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no flour;

if it were to yield,

strangers would devour it.

8  Israel is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

^eas a useless vessel.

9  For they have ^fgone up to Assyria,

a ^gwild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired ^hlovers.

10  Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And the king and princes shall soon writhe

because of the tribute.

11  Because Ephraim has multiplied ⁱaltars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

12  Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

13  As for my sacrificial offerings,

they sacrifice meat and eat it,

but ^jthe Lord does not accept them.

Now he will ^kremember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

^lthey shall return to Egypt.

14  For Israel has ^mforgotten his Maker

and built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

so ⁿI will send a fire upon his cities,

^oand it shall devour her strongholds.