¹Ephraim is feeding on wind

And is pursuing the eastern blast.

All day long he does more fraud and plundering,

And they have made a covenant with Assyria,

And oil is brought to Egypt.

²And the Lord has a quarrel with Judah,

And a reason to visit Jacob according to his ways.

He will recompense him according to his works.

³In the womb he supplanted his brother,

And in his strength he wrestled with God.

⁴And he contended with the angel,

And he prevailed.

He wept and entreated him.

In Beth-El he found him,

And there he spoke with us.

⁵And the Lord is the God of hosts;

The Lord is his memorial name.

⁶And you will return to your God.

Keep mercy and judgment,

And wait for your God, always.

⁷He is a merchant.

In his hand are false balances;

He loves to defraud.

⁸And Ephraim said,

“Surely I have become rich;

I have found wealth for myself.

In all my labours they will not find in me any wrongdoing,

Which would be sin.”

⁹But I am the Lord your God

From the land of Egypt.

I will yet have you dwell in tents,

As on the days of the festival.

¹⁰And I have spoken through the prophets,

And I have increased the number of visions,

And I have given metaphors through the intermediacy of the prophets.

¹¹Is Gilead vanity?

Surely they are falsehood.

They sacrifice oxen in Gilgal,

And their altars are like heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.

¹²And Jacob fled to the country of Aramaea,

And Israel served there for a wife,

And for a wife he kept sheep.

¹³And by a prophet

The Lord brought Israel up out of Egypt,

And by a prophet

He was guarded.

¹⁴Ephraim provoked the Lord bitterly,

And he will leave his acts of bloodshed on him,

And his Lord will requite him his reproach.