1-2. “Every time I gave Israel a fresh start,wiped the slate clean and got them going again,Ephraim soon filled the slate with new sins,the treachery of Samaria written out in bold print.Two-faced and double-tongued,they steal you blind, pick you clean.It never crosses their mindthat I keep account of their every crime.They’re mud-spattered head to toe with the residue of sin.I see who they are and what they’ve done.
11-16. “Ephraim is bird-brained,mindless, clueless,First chirping after Egypt,then fluttering after Assyria.I’ll throw my net over them. I’ll clip their wings.I’ll teach them to mind me!Doom! They’ve run away from home.Now they’re really in trouble! They’ve defied me.And I’m supposed to help themwhile they feed me a line of lies?Instead of crying out to me in heartfelt prayer,they whoop it up in bed with their whores,Gash themselves bloody in their sex-and-religion orgies,but turn their backs on me.I’m the one who gave them good minds and healthy bodies,and how am I repaid? With evil scheming!They turn, but not to me—turn here, then there, like a weather vane.Their rulers will be cut down, murdered—just deserts for their mocking blasphemies.And the final sentence?Ridicule in the court of world opinion.”