Assyria will not save us, we will not ride on horses, and we will no longer proclaim, “Our gods! ” to the work of our hands. For the fatherless receives compassion in you.’
Ephraim, why should I have anything more to do with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing pine tree; your fruit comes from me.
When Ephraim saw his disease and Judah his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria and sent a delegation to the great king. , But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and who depend on horses! They trust in the abundance of chariots and in the large number of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel, and they do not seek the Lord.
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.
They will not defile themselves any more with their idols, their abhorrent things, and all their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.
Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the Lord raises his hand to strike, the helper will stumble and the one who is helped will fall; both will perish together.
Therefore Jacob’s iniquity will be atoned for in this way, and the result of the removal of his sin will be this: when he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.
At that time, the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, ‘Because you depended on the king of Aram and have not depended on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from you.
However, he must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the Lord has told you, “You are never to go back that way again.”
On that day’ #– #this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies #– #‘I will remove the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will banish the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.
My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray; they act promiscuously in disobedience to their God.
Now they continue to sin and make themselves a cast image, idols skilfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say about them, ‘Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.’