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Israel’s Apostasy8 Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the L ord, because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law. 2 Israel cries to me, “My God, we—Israel—know you!” 3 Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him.
4 They made kings, but not through me; they set up princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. 5 Your calf is rejected, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? 6 For it is from Israel, an artisan made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.
7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, foreigners would devour it. 8 Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations as a useless vessel. 9 For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass wandering alone; Ephraim has bargained for lovers. 10 Though they bargain with the nations, I will now gather them up. They shall soon writhe under the burden of kings and princes.
11 When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sin, they became to him altars for sinning. 12 Though I write for him the multitude of my instructions, they are regarded as a strange thing. 13 Though they offer choice sacrifices, though they eat flesh, the L ord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt. 14 Israel has forgotten his Maker, and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his strongholds.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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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 — |