What a nation sows, it will reap

9 From the time of Gibeah, Israel has sinned.

There they took their stand.

Will not war overtake them in Gibeah

because of the wicked?

10 When I please, I will punish them.

Nations will gather against them

to chain them for their double crimes.

11 Ephraim indeed was a trained heifer that loved to thresh grain,

and I myself laid a yoke upon his fair neck[fn],

I made Ephraim draw and Judah must plough,

Jacob must turn the soil for himself.

12 Sow for yourselves righteousness,

reap the fruits of love.

Break up your fallow ground,

for it is time to seek the Lord,

so righteousness may come to you[fn].

13 But you have ploughed wickedness,

iniquity have you reaped.

You have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your own path[fn],

in the multitude of your warriors,

14 the alarm of war will sound in your cities

and all your fortresses will be ruined,

as Shalman laid in ruins Beth-arbel in the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to pieces over their children.

15 Thus will I do to you, Bethel,

because of the enormity of your wickedness.

When dawn breaks, so will the king of Israel be broken.