1 Ephraim chases  * the wind  *

and pursues the east wind.  *

He continually multiplies lies and violence.

He makes a covenant with Assyria,  *

and olive oil is carried to Egypt.  *

2 The Lord also has a dispute with Judah.

He is about to punish Jacob according to his conduct;  *

he will repay him based on his actions.

3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel,  *

and as an adult he wrestled with God.  *

4 Jacob struggled with the angel and prevailed;

he wept and sought his favor.  *

He found him at Bethel,  *

and there he spoke with him.  *,*

5 The Lord is the God of Armies;

the Lord is his name.  *

6 But you must return to your God.  *

Maintain love and justice,  *

and always put your hope in God.  *

7 A merchant loves to extort  *

with dishonest scales in his hands.  *

8 But Ephraim thinks,

"How rich I have become;  *

I made it all myself.

In all my earnings,

no one can find any iniquity in me  *

that I can be punished for! "  *

9 I have been the Lord your God

ever since  * the land of Egypt.  *

I will make you live in tents again,  *

as in the festival days.

10 I will speak through the prophets  *

and grant many visions;

I will give parables through the prophets.  *

11 Since Gilead is full of evil,  *

they will certainly come to nothing.

They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;  *

even their altars will be like piles of rocks  *

on the furrows of a field.

12 Jacob fled to the territory of Aram.  *

Israel worked to earn a wife;  *

he tended flocks for a wife.  *

13 The Lord brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet,  *

and Israel was tended by a prophet.

14 Ephraim has provoked bitter anger,  *

so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him  *

and repay him for his contempt.  *