1. SET THE trumpet to your lips! [The enemy] comes as a [great] vulture against the house of the Lord, because they have broken My covenant and transgressed against My law.
2. Then they will cry to Me, My God, we [of Israel] know You!
3. Israel has rejected the good [with loathing]; the enemy shall pursue him.
4. They set up kings, but not from Me [therefore without My blessing]; they have made princes or removed them [without consulting Me; therefore], I knew and recognized [them] not. With their silver and their gold they made idols for themselves, that they [the silver and the gold] may be destroyed.
5. Your calf [idol], O Samaria, is loathsome and I have spurned it. My wrath burns against them. How long will it be before they attain purity?
6. For this [calf] too is from Israel; a craftsman made it; therefore it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to shivers and go up in flames.
7. For they sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, strangers and aliens would eat it up.
8. Israel is [as if] swallowed up. Already they have become among the nations as a vessel [of cheap, coarse pottery] that is useless.
9. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass taking her own way by herself; Ephraim has hired lovers.
10. Yes, though with presents they hire [allies] among the nations, now will I gather them up, and in a little while they will sorrow and begin to diminish [their gifts] because of the burden (tribute) imposed by the king of princes [the king of Assyria].