Israel Has Trusted Wrong Things
8 “Put the trumpet to your lips and give the warning!
The enemy swoops down on my people like an eagle.
The Israelites have broken my agreement.
They have turned against my teachings.
2 They cry out to me,
‘Our God, we in Israel know you!’
3 But Israel has rejected what is good.
So the enemy chases them.
4 They chose their own kings
without asking my permission.
They chose their own leaders,
men I did not know.
They made their silver and gold into idols.
For all this they will be destroyed.
5 I hate that calf-shaped idol.
I am very angry with the people.
How long will they remain unclean?
6 The idol is something a craftsman made.
It is not God.
Israel’s calf-shaped idol
will surely be smashed to pieces.
7 “Israel’s foolish plans are like planting the wind.
But they will harvest a whirlwind.
Her plans are like a stalk with no head of grain.
It produces nothing.
Even if it produces something,
other nations would eat it.
8 Israel is destroyed.
The people are mixed among the other nations.
They have become useless to me.
9 Like a wild donkey,
Israel has run to Assyria.
Israel has hired other nations to protect her.
10 Although Israel is mixed among the nations,
I will gather them together.
They will become weaker and weaker
as they suffer under the great king of Assyria.
11 “The more altars Israel built to remove sin,
the more they have become altars for sinning.
12 They reject the many teachings I have written for them.
They act as if the teachings were strange and foreign to them.
13 The Israelites offer sacrifices to me
and eat the meat.
But the Lord is not pleased with them.
He remembers the evil they have done.
And he will punish them for their sins.
They will be slaves again as they were in Egypt.
14 The people of Israel have forgotten their Maker.
They trust in the palaces they have built.
And Judah trusts in her many strong, walled cities.
But I will send fire on their cities
and destroy their strong towers.”