12
1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind:
He daily increaseth lies and desolation;
And they do make a covenant with the Assyrians,
And oil is carried into Egypt.
2 The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah,
And will punish Jacob according to his ways;
According to his doings will he recompense him.
3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb,
And by his strength he had power with God:
4 Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed:
He wept, and made supplication unto him:
He found him in Beth-el, and there he spake with us;
5 Even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial.
6 Therefore turn thou to thy God:
Keep mercy and judgment,
And wait on thy God continually.
7 He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand:
He loveth to oppress.
8 And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance:
In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.
9 And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt
Will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.
10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions,
And used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.
11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity:
They sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal;
Yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.
12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria,
And Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
13 And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt,
And by a prophet was he preserved.
14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly:
Therefore shall he leave his blood upon him,
And his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.