For Israel hath behaved himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer: now will Jehovah feed them as a lamb in a large place.

Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! Listen closely, O king! For judgment is about to overtake you! For you were like a trap to Mizpah, like a net spread out to catch Tabor.

I know Ephraim, and Israel cannot hide from me, since you, Ephraim, have been acting like a prostitute, defiling Israel.

The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim
And like dry rot to the house of Judah [in My judgment against them].

For I will be like a lion to Ephraim
And like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear to pieces and go on [tearing];
I will carry off [the prey] and there will be no one to rescue them.

Let us know, let us press on to know Yahweh; his rising [is] sure like [the] dawn. He will come like the showers to us, like [the] spring rain that waters [the] earth.

O Ephraim, what shall I do with you?
O Judah, what shall I do with you?
For your [wavering] loyalty and kindness are [transient] like the morning cloud
And like the dew that goes away early.

Therefore, I have hewn them in pieces by [the words of] the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
My judgments [pronounced upon them by the prophets] are like the light that shines forth [obvious to all].

But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

Like bandits lying in wait, [so is] a band of priests; they murder [on the] road to Shechem; indeed, they commit a monstrous crime.

All of them are adulterers, Like a burning oven of a baker, He ceaseth from stirring up after kneading the dough, till its leavening.

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

They are all heated like an oven, and they put an end to their judges; all their kings have been made low; not one among them makes prayer to me.

Ephraim has mixed itself like flour among the nations; Ephraim is like a ruined cake of bread that is scorched on one side.

Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

When they go, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like birds of the heavens [into Assyrian captivity].
I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation (prophecy) to their congregation.

They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

[Put] to your lips [the] trumpet like a vulture over the house of Yahweh, because they have {broken my covenant} and rebelled against my law.

Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations, like an object that no one desires.

For they are gone up to Assyria, like a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.

I have been wont to write for him the myriad things of my law, - Like something alien, have they been accounted.

Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, departing from thy God; thou hast loved hire upon every grain-floor.

They will not pour [drink offerings of] wine to Yahweh, and their sacrifices will not please him. [They are] like mourners' bread for them; all those who eat it will be defiled. For their bread will be {for their hunger}; it will not come [to] the house of Yahweh.

The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have come; Israel knows! The prophet [is] a fool, the man of the spirit [is] acting like a madman. Because of the greatness of your sin, [your] hostility [is] great.

They have deeply corrupted themselves, like the days of Gibeah: he will call to mind their iniquity, he will punish their sins.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slayer.

An empty vine is Israel, Fruit he maketh like to himself, According to the abundance of his fruit, He hath multiplied for the altars, According to the goodness of his land, They have made goodly standing-pillars.

They have spoken empty (disingenuous) words,
Swearing falsely to make covenants [they intend to break];
Therefore, judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

As for Samaria, her king will be cut off and float away
Like a twig on the surface of the water.

And Ephraim is like a trained heifer, trying to tread out. But I passed over on the goodness of her neck. I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.

Sow righteousness for yourselves
and reap faithful love;
break up your unplowed ground.
It is time to seek the Lord
until He comes and sends righteousness
on you like the rain.

the roar of battle will rise against your people,
and all your fortifications will be demolished
in a day of war,
like Shalman’s destruction of Beth-arbel.
Mothers will be dashed to pieces
along with their children.

Even so shall it go with you, O Bethel, because of your malicious wickedness. Like as the morning goeth away, so shall the king of Israel pass.

When Israel was a young man, I loved him like a son, and I summoned my son out of Egypt.

I drew them {with human ties}, with the bands of love. I was to them like one who lifted up a yoke on their jaws, [though] I bent down to them [and] let them eat.

How can I give you up, Ephraim? [How] can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? [How] can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is disturbed within me; {all} my compassions are aroused.

They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.

They will come trembling and hurriedly like birds from Egypt
And like doves from the land of Assyria;
And I will settle them in their houses [in the land of their inheritance], declares the Lord.

But I [am] Yahweh your God since the land of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, like the days of [the] appointed festival.

Is there wickedness (idolatry) in Gilead?
Surely the people there are worthless.
In Gilgal [they defy Me when] they sacrifice bulls,
Yes, [after My judgment] their [pagan] altars are like the stone heaps
In the furrows of the fields.

And now they sin more and more. Of their silver, they make them molten Images, like the idols of the Heathen, and yet all is nothing but the work of the craftsmen. Notwithstanding they preach of the same: whoso will kiss the calves, offereth to men.

Therefore they will be [swiftly dissipated] like the morning cloud
Or like dew which soon disappears,
Like chaff which swirls with the whirlwind from the threshing floor,
And like smoke from the chimney or through the window [worthless and without substance —they will vanish].

So I will be like a lion to them;
Like a leopard I will watch and lie in wait [ready to attack] by the road [to Assyria].

I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

Even though he flourishes like a reed plant, a scorching east wind will come, a wind from the Lord rising up from the desert. As a result, his spring will dry up; his well will become dry. That wind will spoil all his delightful foods in the containers in his storehouse.

Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, "Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.

I shall be like the dew to Israel;
He will blossom like the lily,
And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

His shoots will sprout,
And his beauty will be like the olive tree
And his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

Those who live in his shadow
Will again raise grain,
And they will blossom like the vine.
His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

Hear this, you elders;
listen, all you inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?

Indeed, a nation has invaded my land it is strong and its population is too large to count with teeth like a lion and fangs like a lioness.

Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

Ah! For the day! For the day of Yahweh is near. It will come like destruction from Shaddai.

A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

{Before them} a fire devours, and behind them a flame burns. Like the garden of Eden is the land {before them}, and after them [it is like] a desolate desert, and nothing can escape them.

Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
And they run like war horses.

Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.

They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:

They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.

“But I will remove the northern army far away from you,
And I will drive it into a parched and desolate land,
With its forward guard into the eastern sea (Dead Sea)
And with its rear guard into the western sea (Mediterranean Sea).
And its stench will arise and its foul odor of decay will come up [this is the fate of the northern army in the final day of the Lord],
For He has done great things.”

And the time shall come: that whosoever calleth upon the name of the LORD, shall be saved. For upon the mount Zion and at Jerusalem, there shall be a salvation, like as the LORD hath promised. Yea, and among the other remnant, whom the LORD shall call.

This is what the Lord says: "Because Damascus has committed three crimes -- make that four! -- I will not revoke my decree of judgment. They ripped through Gilead like threshing sledges with iron teeth.

Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

Look! I will press you down, like a cart loaded down with grain presses down.

Thus saith Jehovah: Like as the shepherd rescueth out of the jaw of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear; so shall the children of Israel be rescued that sit in Samaria in the corner of a couch, and upon the damask of a bed.

“Offer [by burning] a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened,
And [boastfully] proclaim freewill offerings, announce them.
For this you so love to do, O children of Israel!”
Says the Lord God.

I sent plagues like those of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword,
along with your captured horses.
I caused the stench of your camp
to fill your nostrils,
yet you did not return to Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

I have overthrown among you, like God's overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.

Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel.

It is he who is raining sudden destruction upon the strong like lightning, so that ruin comes upon the fortress.

It will be like a man who flees from a lion
only to have a bear confront him.
He goes home and rests his hand against the wall
only to have a snake bite him.

“But let justice run down like waters
And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream [flowing abundantly].

That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;

Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? yea, it shall rise up wholly like the River; and it shall be troubled and sink again, like the River of Egypt.

And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all of your songs into lament, and I will put sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning for an only child, and its end like a bitter day.

And the Lord GOD of hosts is he that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall rise up wholly like a flood; and shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.

"Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?" {declares} Yahweh. "Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt and [the] Philistines from Caphtor and {the Arameans} from Kir?

For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

On that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen, and I will repair its breaches and will raise up its ruins and will build it like the days of old.

[Even] if you soar like the eagle, [even] if your nest is set among [the] stars, from there I will bring you down!" {declares} Yahweh:

On {the day you stood nearby}, {on the day strangers took} his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots over Jerusalem, you were also like one of them.

For the day of the LORD is hard by upon all Heathen. Like as thou hast done, so shalt thou be dealt withal. Yea, thou shalt be rewarded even upon thine head.

The descendants of Jacob will be a fire, and the descendants of Joseph a flame. The descendants of Esau will be like stubble. They will burn them up and devour them. There will not be a single survivor of the descendants of Esau!" Indeed, the Lord has spoken it.

But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.

The mountains shall melt under Him
And the valleys shall be split
Like wax before the fire,
Like waters poured down a steep place.

Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations.

Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!

Therefore the Lord says this: "Look, I am devising disaster for this nation! It will be like a yoke from which you cannot free your neck. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of catastrophe.

Let not words like these be dropped, they say: Shame and the curse will not come to the family of Jacob!

But recently My people have risen up
like an enemy:
You strip off the splendid robe
from those who are passing through confidently,
like those returning from war.

Suppose a man who keeps company with a deceiving spirit prophesies like this: "Drink wine and strong drink!' Won't the people accept him as a prophet?"

“I shall most certainly assemble all of you, O Jacob;
I shall surely gather the remnant of Israel.
I shall bring them together like sheep in the fold [multiplying the nation];
Like a flock in the midst of its pasture.
The place will swarm with many people and hum loudly with noise.

You who eat the flesh of my people,
Strip off their skin from them,
Break their bones
And chop them in pieces as for the pot,
Like meat in a kettle.”

Therefore, on account of you
Zion shall be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
And the mountain of the house [of the Lord] shall become like a densely wooded hill.

“Now, why do you cry out loudly?
Is there no king among you?
Has your counselor perished?
For agony has gripped you like a woman in childbirth.