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.
11. Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain;I myself put a fine yokeon her neck.I will harness Ephraim.Let Judah plow!Let Jacob break up the unplowed ground for himself!
12. Sow righteousness for yourselves,reap unfailing love.Break up the unplowed ground for yourselves,for it is time to seek the Lord,until he comes and showers deliverance on you.
13. But you have plowed wickedness;you have reaped injustice;you have eaten the fruit of deception.Because you have depended on your chariots;you have relied on your many warriors.