8:1  {Put} the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle {the enemy comes} against the house of the LORD, Because they have transgressed My covenant And rebelled against My law.

8:2  They cry out to Me, "My God, we of Israel know You!"

8:3  Israel has rejected the good; The enemy will pursue him.

8:4  They have set up kings, but not by Me; They have appointed princes, but I did not know {it.} With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves, That they might be cut off.

8:5  He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, {saying,} "My anger burns against them! How long will they be incapable of innocence?"

8:6  For from Israel is even this! A craftsman made it, so it is not God; Surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.

8:7  For they sow the wind And they reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; It yields no grain. Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.

8:8  Israel is swallowed up; They are now among the nations Like a vessel in which no one delights.

8:9  For they have gone up to Assyria, {Like} a wild donkey all alone; Ephraim has hired lovers.

8:10  Even though they hire {allies} among the nations, Now I will gather them up; And they will begin to diminish Because of the burden of the king of princes.

8:11  Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, They have become altars of sinning for him.

8:12  Though I wrote for him ten thousand {precepts} of My law, They are regarded as a strange thing.

8:13  As for My sacrificial gifts, They sacrifice the flesh and eat {it,} {But} the LORD has taken no delight in them. Now He will remember their iniquity, And punish {them} for their sins; They will return to Egypt.

8:14  For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; And Judah has multiplied fortified cities, But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.