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.