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8. Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

¹ “Put the trumpet to your lips!
   An eagle is over the house of the LORD
because the people have broken my covenant
   and rebelled against my law.
² Israel cries out to me,
   ‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’
³ But Israel has rejected what is good;
   an enemy will pursue him.
⁴ They set up kings without my consent;
   they choose princes without my approval.
With their silver and gold
   they make idols for themselves
   to their own destruction.
⁵ Samaria, throw out your calf-idol!
   My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of purity?
    ⁶ They are from Israel!
This calf—a metalworker has made it;
   it is not God.
It will be broken in pieces,
   that calf of Samaria.

    ⁷ “They sow the wind
   and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
   it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
   foreigners would swallow it up.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up;
   now she is among the nations
   like something no one wants.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria
   like a wild donkey wandering alone.
   Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.
¹⁰ Although they have sold themselves among the nations,
   I will now gather them together.
They will begin to waste away
   under the oppression of the mighty king.

    ¹¹ “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
   these have become altars for sinning.
¹² I wrote for them the many things of my law,
   but they regarded them as something foreign.
¹³ Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,
   and though they eat the meat,
   the LORD is not pleased with them.
Now he will remember their wickedness
   and punish their sins:
   They will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ Israel has forgotten their Maker
   and built palaces;
   Judah has fortified many towns.
But I will send fire on their cities
   that will consume their fortresses.”

The verb זנח, zanech, means “to remove far off,” and “to throw to a distance;” and sometimes, as some think, “to detest.” There is here, I doubt not, an implied contrast between the rejection of good and the pursuing of which the Prophet speaks afterwards, Israel has driven good far from himself; some expound טוב, thub, of God himself, as if it was of the masculine gender: but the Prophet, I have no doubt, simply accuses the Israelites of having receded from all justice and uprightness; yea, of having driven far off every thing right and just. Israel, then, has repelled good; the enemy, he says, will pursue him There is a contrast between repelling and pursuing, as though the prophet said, that the Israelites had by their defection obtained this, that the enemy would now seize them. There is then no better defense for us against all harms than attention to piety and justice; but when integrity is banished from us, then we are exposed to all evils, for we are deprived of the aid of God. We then see how beautifully the Prophet compares these two things — the rejection of good by Israel — and their pursuit by their enemies. He then adds —