Dual Panel1ISRAEL IS a luxuriant vine that puts forth its [material] fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars [to idols]; according to the goodness {and} prosperity of their land they have made goodly pillars {or} obelisks [to false gods].
2Their heart is divided {and} deceitful; now shall they be found guilty {and} suffer punishment. The Lord will smite {and} break down [the horns of] their altars; He will destroy their [idolatrous] pillars.
3Surely now they shall say, We have no [actual] king because we fear not the Lord; and as for the king, what can he do for us?
4They have spoken mere words of the lips, swearing falsely in making covenants; therefore judgment springs up like hemlock [or other poisonous plants] in the furrows of the field.
5The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calf [idol] of Beth-aven [the house of idolatry, contemptuously meaning Bethel], for its people shall mourn over it and its [idolatrous] priests who rejoiced over it [shall tremble] for the glory of [their calf god], because it is departed from it.
6[The golden calf] shall also be carried into Assyria as a tribute-gift to the fighting King Jareb; Ephraim shall be put to shame and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel [to set up calf worship and detach Israel from Judah].
7As for Samaria, her king {and} her whole monarchy are cut off like twigs {or} foam upon the water.
8The high places also of Aven [once Beth(el), house of God, now (Beth-)aven, house of idolatry], the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed; the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their [idol] altars, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us! And to the hills, Fall on us!
9O Israel, you have [willfully] sinned from the days of Gibeah [when you all but wiped out the tribe of Benjamin]! There [Israel] stood [then, only] that the battle against the sons of unrighteousness might not overtake {and} turn against them at Gibeah [but now the kingdom of the ten tribes and the name of Ephraim shall be utterly blotted out].
10When I please I will chastise them, and hostile peoples shall be gathered against them when I shall bind {and} yoke them for their two transgressions [revolt from the Lord their God and the worship of idols].
11Ephraim indeed is a heifer broken in {and} loving to tread out the grain, but I have [heretofore] spared the beauty of her fair neck. I will now set a rider upon Ephraim {and} make him to draw; Judah shall plow and Jacob shall break his clods.
12Sow for yourselves according to righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God); reap according to mercy {and} loving-kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for {and} of Him, {and} to require His favor, till He comes and teaches you righteousness {and} rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you.
13You have plowed {and} plotted wickedness, you have reaped the [willful] injustice [of oppressors], you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your [own] way {and} your chariots, in the multitude of your mighty men,
14Therefore shall a tumult arise against your people and all your fortresses shall be wasted {and} destroyed, as Shalmaneser wasted {and} destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; the mother was dashed in pieces with her children.
15So shall it be done to you at [idolatrous] Bethel because of your great wickedness; at daybreak shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off.