8:1  "Put the trumpet to your lips!
An eagle is over the house of the LORD
because the people have broken my covenant
and rebelled against my law.

8:2  Israel cries out to me,
'O our God, we acknowledge you!'

8:3  But Israel has rejected what is good;
an enemy will pursue him.

8:4  They set up kings without my consent;
they choose princes without my approval.
With their silver and gold
they make idols for themselves
to their own destruction.

8:5  Throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria!
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of purity?

8:6  They are from Israel!
This calf—a craftsman has made it;
it is not God.
It will be broken in pieces,
that calf of Samaria.

8:7  "They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.

8:8  Israel is swallowed up;
now she is among the nations
like a worthless thing.

8:9  For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey wandering alone.
Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

8:10  Although they have sold themselves among the nations,
I will now gather them together.
They will begin to waste away
under the oppression of the mighty king.

8:11  "Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
these have become altars for sinning.

8:12  I wrote for them the many things of my law,
but they regarded them as something alien.

8:13  They offer sacrifices given to me
and they eat the meat,
but the LORD is not pleased with them.
Now he will remember their wickedness
and punish their sins:
They will return to Egypt.

8:14  Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built palaces;
Judah has fortified many towns.
But I will send fire upon their cities
that will consume their fortresses."