Israel is reproved for sin. God’s favours to them.
12:1. Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth the burning heat: all
the day long he multiplied lies and desolation: and he hath made a
covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt.
12:2. Therefore there is a judgment of the Lord with Juda, and a
visitation for Jacob: he will render to him according to his ways, and
according to his devices.
12:3. In the womb he supplanted his brother: and by his strength he had
success with an angel.
12:4. And he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept,
and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he
spoke with us.
12:5. Even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial.
12:6. Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and hope
in thy God always.
12:7. He is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he
hath loved oppression.
12:8. And Ephraim said: But yet I am become rich, I have found me an
idol: all my labours shall not find me the iniquity that I have
committed.
12:9. And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, will yet
cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the feast.
12:10. And I have spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied
visions, and I have used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.
12:11. If Galaad be an idol, then in vain were they in Galgal offering
sacrifices with bullocks: for their altars also are as heaps in the
furrows of the field.
If Galaad be an idol, etc.... That is, if Galaad with all its idols and
sacrifices be like a mere idol itself, being brought to nothing by
Theglathphalasar: how vain is it to expect, that the idols worshipped
in Galgal shall be of any service to the tribes that remain.
12:12. Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a
wife, and was a keeper for a wife.
12:13. But the Lord by a prophet brought Israel out of Egypt: and he
was preserved by a prophet.
12:14. Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath with his bitterness, and his
blood shall come upon him, and his Lord will render his reproach unto
him.