He will turn his attention back to the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble, fall, and be no more.

""In his place there will arise a despicable person, upon whom no royal authority has been conferred, but he'll invade in a time of tranquility, taking over the kingdom through deception.

Then will he stir up his strength and his heart, against the king of the south, with a great army, and, the king of the south, will wage war, with a great and exceedingly mighty army, - but will make no stand, for they will devise against him plots;

The two kings, whose hearts are bent on evil, will speak lies at the same table but to no avail, for still the end will come at the appointed time.

And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

Now when they shall fall, they shall be holpen with a little help: but many shall cleave to them with flatteries.

He will have no respect for the gods of his fathers or for the god desired by women; he will have no respect for any god: for he will put himself on high over all.

But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.

yea he will thrust forth his hand against the lands, - and, the land of Egypt, shall have no deliverance;

and he planteth the tents of his palace between the seas and the holy desirable mountain, and hath come unto his end, and there is no helper to him.

"Now at that time, Michael, the great prince, will arise, {the protector} over the sons of your people, and it will be a time of distress that has not been since [your people] {have been} a nation until that time. And at that time your people will escape, {everyone who is found} written in the scroll.

Now as for you, Daniel, roll up your scroll and seal your words until the time of the end. Many will rush around, while knowledge increases.'"

Now I myself heard, but I [did] not understand, and I said, "My lord, what [will be the] outcome [of] these [things]?"

and many shall be purified, cleansed and tried. But the ungodly shall live wickedly, and those wicked, as many as they be, shall have no understanding. As for such as have understanding, they shall regard it.

But as for you (Daniel), go your way until the end [of your life]; for you will rest and rise again for your allotted inheritance at the end of the age.”

And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.

Then said he, Call his name Lo-ammi, - for ye are Lo-ammi "No people of mine" , and, I, will not be yours.

Yet shall the number of the sons of Israel become like the sand of the sea, which can neither he measured, nor numbered, - and it shall come to pass, in the place where it used to be said to them, No people of mine, are ye, it shall be said to them, Sons of a Living God!

Contend ye with your mother, contend, for she is no wife of mine, and I am no husband of hers, Let her then put away her paramours from before her, and her partners in adultery, from her embraces:

If no, I shall strip her naked, and set her, even as she came into the world. Yea, I shall lay her waste, and make her like a wilderness, and slay her for thirst.

Yea, upon her children will I have no mercy; for they are children of whoredom;

And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

Therefore will I take back my grain in the time thereof, and my new wine in the season thereof, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.

And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

And I will give her punishment for the days of the Baals, to whom she has been burning perfumes, when she made herself fair with her nose-rings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, giving no thought to me, says the Lord.

"Therefore, look! I will now allure her. I will make her go out to the wilderness, and will speak to her heart.

And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

and the earth shall answer the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall answer Jezreel.

I will sow her in the land for Myself,
and I will have compassion
on No Compassion;
I will say to Not My People:
You are My people,
and he will say, “You are My God.”

So I secured n her to me, for fifteen pieces of silver, - and a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley;

And I said to her, You are to be mine for a long space of time; you are not to be false to me, and no other man is to have you for his wife; and so will I be to you.

For many days remain do the sons of Israel without a king, and there is no prince, and there is no sacrifice, and there is no standing pillar, and there is no ephod and teraphim.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

They will eat, but not have enough;
They will play the prostitute, but not increase [their descendants],
Because they have stopped giving heed to the Lord.

Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

I will not give punishment to your daughters or your brides for their evil behaviour; for they make themselves separate with loose women, and make offerings with those who are used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods: the people who have no wisdom will be sent away.

For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

Those who revolt are knee-deep in slaughter, but I will discipline them all.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.

Their doings will not suffer them to turn unto their God; for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not Jehovah.

They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

Ephraim is oppressed, and can have no right of the law. For why? They follow the doctrines of men.

For I am as a lion to Ephraim, And as a young lion to the house of Judah, I -- I tear and go, I bear away, and there is no deliverer.

Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me.

Therefore must Ephraim be mixed among the Heathen. Ephraim is become like a cake that no man turneth:

Strangers have devoured his strength,
Yet he does not know it;
Gray hairs are sprinkled on him,
Yet he does not know.

So then, Ephraim, hath become, like a simple dove, having no understanding, on Egypt, have they called, to Assyria, have they gone,

And they have not cried unto me with their heart, but they howl upon their beds: they assemble themselves for grain and new wine; they rebel against me.

They have gone to what is of no value; they are like a false bow; their captains will come to destruction by the sword, and their ruler by my wrath; for this, the land of Egypt will make sport of them.

Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.

They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

For from Israel is even this; the workman made it, and it is no God; yea, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.

They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

For Israel has no memory of his Maker, and has put up the houses of kings; and Judah has made great the number of his walled towns. But I will send a fire on his towns and put an end to his great houses.

Have no joy, O Israel, and do not be glad like the nations; for you have been untrue to your God; your desire has been for the loose woman's reward on every grain-floor.

The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

They will have no resting-place in the Lord's land, but Ephraim will go back to Egypt, and they will take unclean food in Assyria.

They shall pour out no offerings of wine to Jehovah, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto him: they shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be defiled: for their bread shall be for themselves; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.

The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

Is Ephraim a watchman with my God? nay the prophet is a fowler's snare on all his ways, enmity in the house of his God.

As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.

Yea, though they rear their children, yet will I make them childless, till there be no human being, - for it is, nothing less than woe, to them when I depart from them!

Ephraim, as me think, is planted in wealthiness, like as Tyre, but now must she bring her own children forth to the manslayer.

All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.

Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.

Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.

For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?

Also the high places of Aven (Beth-aven), the sin of Israel, will be destroyed;
The thorn and the thistle will grow on their [pagan] altars,
And [in despair] they will say to the mountains,
“Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

O Israel, you have [willfully] sinned since the days of Gibeah;
There they (Israel) stand!
Will not the battle against the sons of wickedness overtake them at Gibeah?

Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to tread out the grain,
But I will come over her fair neck with a heavy yoke [for hard field work].
I will harness Ephraim;
Judah will plow and Jacob will harrow and rake for himself.

Sow in righteousness in your own interest, reap in gracious love, break up your own unprepared ground; It is now time to inquire of the LORD, until he comes to pour out righteousness for you.

But now they have plowed them wickedness, therefore shall they reap sin, and eat the fruit of lies. Seeing thou puttest thy confidence in thine own ways, and leanest to the multitude of thy worthies:

I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.

that they should not go again into Egypt. And now is Assyria their king: for they would not turn unto me.

My people are given up to sinning against me; though their voice goes up on high, no one will be lifting them up.

What great things have I given thee, O Ephraim? How faithfully have I defended thee, O Israel? Have I dealt with thee as with Adam? Or have I entreated thee like Zeboim? No, my heart is otherwise minded. Yea, my mercy is to fervent:

therefore have I not turned me to destroy Ephraim in my wrathful displeasure. For I am God, and no man: I am even that holy one in the midst of thee, though I came not within the city.

"Now as for the merchant, deceitful balances remain in his hand, and he loves to defraud.

And Ephraim said, Surely I am become rich, I have found me wealth: in all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that were sin.

Now Jacob fled to the land of Aram,
And Israel worked for a wife,
And for a wife he kept sheep.

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.

I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

I will destroy you, Israel;
you have no help but Me.

Where now is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

The pains of childbirth come on him;
But he is not a wise son,
For it is not the time to delay [his chance at a new birth] as the womb opens [but he ignores the opportunity to change].

I will give the price to make them free from the power of the underworld, I will be their saviour from death: O death! where are your pains? O underworld! where is your destruction? my eyes will have no pity.

Yet can I see no comfort, for when he is now the goodliest among the brethren, the East wind, even the wind of the LORD, shall come down from the wilderness, and dry up his conduits, and drink up his wells: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.