Chapter 8

  'Unto thy mouth -- a trumpet, As an eagle against the house of Jehovah, Because they transgressed My covenant, And against My law they have rebelled.  

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  To Me they cry, 'My God, we -- Israel -- have known Thee.'  

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  Cast off good hath Israel, an enemy pursueth him.  

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  They have made kings, and not by Me, They have made princes, and I have not known, Their silver and their gold they have made to them idols, So that they are cut off.  

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  Cast off hath thy calf, O Samaria, Burned hath Mine anger against them, Till when are they not capable of purity?  

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  For even it [is] of Israel; an artificer made it, And it [is] not God, For the calf of Samaria is fragments!  

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  For wind they sow, and a hurricane they reap, Stalk it hath none -- a shoot not yielding grain, If so be it yield -- strangers do swallow it up.  

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  Israel hath been swallowed up, Now they have been among nations, As a vessel in which is no delight.  

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  For they -- they have gone up [to] Asshur, A wild ass alone by himself [is] Ephraim, They have hired lovers!  

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  Also though they hire among nations, Now I gather them, and they are pained a little, From the burden of a king of princes.  

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  Because Ephraim did multiply altars to sin, They have been to him altars to sin.  

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  I write for him numerous things of My law, As a strange thing they have been reckoned.  

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  The sacrifices of Mine offerings! They sacrifice flesh, and they eat, Jehovah hath not accepted them, Now doth He remember their iniquity, And inspect their sin, They -- [to] Egypt they turn back.  

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  And forget doth Israel his Maker, and buildeth temples, And Judah hath multiplied cities of defence, And I have sent a fire into his cities, And it hath consumed their palaces!  

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