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One like an eagle is over the House of the Lord,
because they have broken My covenant
and rebelled against My law.
2 Israel cries out to Me,
‘My God, we know You!’
3 But Israel has rejected what is good;
an enemy will pursue him.
4 They have installed kings, but not through Me;
they set up princes, but without My approval.
With their silver and gold
they make idols for themselves
to their own destruction.
5 Your calf-idol is rejected, O Samaria!
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 This is from Israel—
a craftsman has made it;
it is not God.
The calf of Samaria
will be broken in pieces.
7 “They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads;
it will produce no flour.
Even if it was to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up;
now they are among the nations
like useless pottery.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey wandering alone.
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Though they have hired lovers among the nations,
I will now gather them together.
They will soon begin to waste away
under the oppression of kings and princes.
11 “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
these became to him altars for sinning.
12 Though I wrote for him ten thousand items of My law,
they regarded them as something strange.
13 Though they offer choice sacrifices
and they eat the meat,
the Lord does not accept them.
Now He will remember their wickedness
and punish their sins,
and they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built palaces;
Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.
But I will send fire upon their cities,
and it will consume his fortresses.”