And at that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah saying, “Because you depended on the king of Aram and did not depend on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram escaped from your hand.
You have seen it, for You observe trouble and grief, to repay it with Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the orphan.
Through this, therefore, the iniquity of Jacob shall be forgiven, and this will be the full price of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are pulverized, when the groves and incense altars shall not stand.
and you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”; therefore you shall flee. “And we will ride on swift horses”; therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the Lord!
Now the Egyptians are men and not God; and their horses flesh and not spirit. When the Lord shall stretch out His hand, both he who helps shall fall and he who is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.
“Now therefore, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.
Nor shall they defile themselves anymore with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions. But I will save them out of all their dwelling places in which they have sinned and will cleanse them. So they shall be My people, and I will be their God.
Ephraim feeds on the wind and chases after the east wind all day long. He multiplies lies and devastation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.
And now they continue sinning and have made a cast image for themselves, idols of their silver, according to their understanding; all of them the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Those who sacrifice are kissing calves!”
My people seek counsel from their wood, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has led them astray, and they have played the whore in defiance of their God.
When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to King Jareb. Yet he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
And on that day, says the Lord of Hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will not be remembered any more. And I will also remove from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit.
What is more, he shall not accumulate horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order that he accumulate horses, for as the Lord has said to you, “You must not go back that way ever again.”