17 My God will reject them because they haven’t listened to him.

→They will become wanderers among the nations.

10 Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces his fruit.

→The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built.

≈As his land prospered, he improved his sacred pillars.

2 Their heart is deceitful.

→Now they must bear their guilt.

He will break down their altars.

≈He’ll destroy their pillars.

3 Now they’ll say, “We don’t have any king,

because we don’t respect Yahweh,

and what advantage would it be to us to have a king?”

4 They speak mere words.

They make agreements with worthless promises.

So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

5 The inhabitants of Shomron (Samaria) will be afraid about what will happen to the calf of Beth-Aven.

Indeed, its people will mourn over it, as will its idolatrous priests who had rejoiced over it

and over its splendour because it’s departed from them.

6 The thing itself will be carried to Assyria as tribute for the great king.

Efraim will receive shame,

≈and Israel will be ashamed of its idol.

7 The king of Shomron will be removed,

like a twig getting carried out of sight by a river.

8 The high places of Aven, the place of Israel’s sin, will be destroyed.

≈Thorns and thistles will grow up on their altars.

Then they’ll say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’

≈and to the hills, ‘Fall on us.’[ref]