1: "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.
2: It never crosses their mind that 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.
3: "They entertain the king with their evil circus, delight the princes with their acrobatic lies.
4: They're a bunch of overheated adulterers, like an oven that holds its heat From the kneading of the dough to the rising of the bread.
5: On the royal holiday the princes get drunk on wine and the frenzy of the mocking mob.
6: They're like wood stoves, red-hot with lust. Through the night their passion is banked; in the morning it blazes up, flames hungrily licking.
7: Murderous and volcanic, they incinerate their rulers. Their kings fall one by one, and no one pays any attention to me.
8: "Ephraim mingles with the pagans, dissipating himself. Ephraim is half-baked.
9: Strangers suck him dry but he doesn't even notice. His hair has turned gray--he doesn't notice.
10: Bloated by arrogance, big as a house, Israel's a public disgrace. Israel lumbers along oblivious to GOD, despite all the signs, ignoring GOD.
11: "Ephraim is bird-brained, mindless, clueless, First chirping after Egypt, then fluttering after Assyria.
12: I'll throw my net over them. I'll clip their wings. I'll teach them to mind me!
13: Doom! They've run away from home. Now they're really in trouble! They've defied me. And I'm supposed to help them while they feed me a line of lies?
14: 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.
15: I'm the one who gave them good minds and healthy bodies, and how am I repaid? With evil scheming!
16: 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.