The Israelites are threatened with destruction for their impiety and
idolatry.
8:1. Let there be a trumpet in thy throat like an eagle upon the house
of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and have
violated my law.
8:2. They shall call upon me: O my God, we, Israel, know thee.
8:3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, the enemy shall
pursue him.
8:4. They have reigned, but not by me: they have been princes, and I
knew not: of their silver and their gold they have made idols to
themselves, that they might perish.
8:5. Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off, my wrath is kindled against
them. How long will they be incapable of being cleansed?
8:6. For itself also is the invention of Israel: a workman made it, and
it is no god: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders' webs.
8:7. For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no
standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should
yield, strangers shall eat it.
8:8. Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations like an
unclean vessel.
8:9. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself:
Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers.
8:10. But even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I
gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of
the king, and the princes.
8:11. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin: altars are become
to him unto sin.
8:12. I shall write to him my manifold laws, which have been accounted
as foreign.
8:13. They shall offer victims, they shall sacrifice flesh, and shall
eat it, and the Lord will not receive them: now will he remember their
iniquity, and will visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.
8:14. And Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and hath built temples: and
Juda hath built many fenced cities: and I will send a fire upon his
cities, and it shall devour the houses thereof.