Moff HOS Chapter 8

8 Set the trumpet to your lips!

An eagle swoops upon the house of the Eternal;

for my compact they have broken,

and rebelled against my law,

2 although they cry to me,

“God of Israel, we know thee.”

3 Israel discards the good:

so let the foe pursue them!

4b Of silver and gold they made them idols–

only to be wasted.

5 Your Calf, Samaria, I detest it,

my wrath blazes at it

6 [[How long will it be before Israel

returns to purity of life?]];

a craftsman made it,

it is not God–

no, Samaria’s Calf shall be smashed.

7 They sow the wind and reap the storm.

No stalk on their shoot it bears no fruit.

If fruit it bore, a foreigner would devour it.

8a [[And Israel is devoured.]]

4a They set up kings, but not with my consent;

they set up chiefs, but not with my approval;

8b and now they count for nothing among the nations.

9 They have gone off to Assyria wilfully,

like a wild ass by himself;

they have offered love-gifts to Egypt.

10 If thus they spend themselves among the nations,

I must be scattering them,

to make them cease awhile

from electing kings and chiefs.

11 Many an altar has Ephraim raised,

altars that only serve for sin.

12 Were I to write for him my laws,

he would but think them foreigners’ saws.

13 They sacrifice indeed,

sacrifice flesh – and eat it!

The Eternal has no delight in that!

I must remember their guilt now,

and punish their iniquity

[[Back to Egypt they must go.

14 For Israel forgot his Maker and built temples,

Judah made many a citadel:

but I fling fires of war on citadels,

and burn up temples]].