2. Their heart is slipping;soon they will be punished for their guilt.The Lord will break their altars;he will completely destroy their fertility pillars.
3. Very soon they will say, “We have no kingsince we did not fear the Lord.But what can a king do for us anyway?”
4. They utter empty words,taking false oaths and making empty agreements.Therefore legal disputes sprout uplike poisonous weeds in the furrows of a plowed field.
5. The inhabitants of Samaria will lament over the calf idol of Beth Aven.Its people will mourn over it;its idolatrous priests will wail over it,because its splendor will be taken from them into exile.
6. Even the calf idol will be carried to Assyria,as tribute for the great king.Ephraim will be disgraced;Israel will be put to shame because of its wooden idol.
7. Samaria and its king will be carried offlike a twig on the surface of the waters.
8. The high places of the “House of Wickedness” will be destroyed;it is the place where Israel sins.Thorns and thistles will grow up over its altars.Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
9. O Israel, you have sinned since the time of Gibeah, and there you have remained.Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?
10. When I please, I will discipline them;I will gather nations together to attack them,to bind them in chains for their two sins.