The enemies will destroy the city of Samaria
1The number of Israelites has become more and more.
They are like vines with a lot of grapes.
But when they became a big nation,
they started to build a lot of altars.
When all went well in the land,
they built beautiful sacred_pillars.
2They are false, and that is why it is right
when the Lord punishes them.
He will break down their altars
and destroy their sacred_pillars.
3They say: ‘We don't listen to the king,
because we are not afraid of the Lord.
A king can not help us.’
4They promise a lot of things
and say the Lord is their Witness
but they lie when they promise these things.
They are like poisonous plants
that grow in the fields.
5The people who live in the land of Samaria
are worried about the image
of the bull-calf in the sinful town of Bethel.
The people and priests are crying
and mourning over the image
because the enemies have taken away
everything that was with the image.
6They will also take away the image
and give it to the king of Assyria as a gift.
The enemies will laugh at the people of Ephraim.
They will be ashamed of everything
they wanted to do.
7The enemies will destroy the city of Samaria.
The city and its king will disappear.
It will be like a stick
that floats away on water.
8The enemies will destroy
the places_of_sacrifice at Bethel,
where the Israelites have sinned.
Thorns and bushes will grow on their altars.
They will say to the mountains and the hills:
‘Fall on us, and cover us.’
9The Lord said:
‘The Israelites have sinned.
They did what the people of Gibeah did,
and they did not stop doing it.
There was war_against the bad people of Gibeah,
10and if I decide to do it,
I will also punish the Israelites.
I will call other nations to come together
against them and punish them,
because they have sinned again and again.
11The people of Ephraim
were like a young cow that is not wild,
and that likes to trample wheat
on the threshing-floor.
When I walked past her,
I saw she had a strong neck
and I want to use her to plough.
Judah and the descendants of Jacob
will have to plough together to prepare the land.
12I told them: “You must do
what I want you to do.
That is the seed that you must sow,
and then I will love you again.
This will be the wheat that you will harvest.
You must start now to work
on my wheat_field.
Now is the time to ask what the Lord wants.
Then He will come to you
and He will make you righteous
and bless you.”
13But you have done wrong.
The seed that you have sown
was doing bad things.
That is why you will suffer like people
who have harvested sinful things.
You have lied and now I will punish you.
You thought you were strong enough
and that you would win
if you had a lot of soldiers.
14There will be war_against you.
The enemies will destroy
all your cities with strong walls.
You will suffer like the people
in the town of Beth-Arbel,
when King Shalman killed mothers
together with their children.
15That is what will happen
to the people of Bethel
because they have done bad things.
When the sun comes up tomorrow morning,
Israel will not have a king anymore.’
