“Ashshur does not save us. We do not ride on horses, nor ever again do we say to the work of our hands, ‘Our mighty ones.’ For the fatherless finds compassion in You.”
And at that time Ḥanani the seer came to Asa sovereign of Yehuḏah, and said to him, “Because you have relied on the sovereign of Aram, and have not relied on יהוה your Elohim, therefore the army of the sovereign of Aram has escaped from your hand.
Rĕsh You have seen it, for You observe trouble and grief, To repay with Your hand. The poor commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.
Therefore by this the crookedness of Ya‛aqoḇ is covered. And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: when he makes all the stones of the slaughter-place like chalkstones that are beaten to dust – Ashĕrim and sun-pillars rise no more.
who are setting out to go down to Mitsrayim, and have not asked My mouth, to be strengthened in the strength of Pharaoh, and to seek refuge in the shadow of Mitsrayim!
Woe to those who go down to Mitsrayim for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl, nor seek יהוה!
And the Mitsrites are men, and not Ěl. And their horses are flesh, and not spirit. And when יהוה stretches out His hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall. And they shall all fall, together.
“And now, I urge you, please give a pledge to my master the sovereign of Ashshur, and I give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to put riders on them!
“And they shall no longer defile themselves with their idols, nor with their disgusting matters, nor with any of their transgressions. And I shall save them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and I shall cleanse them. And they shall be My people, and I be their Elohim,
Ephrayim is feeding on wind, and pursuing an east wind. All the day he increases falsehood and ruin. And they make a covenant with Ashshur, and oil is sent to Mitsrayim.
And now they sin more and more, and make for themselves moulded images from their silver, idols according to their skill, all of them the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the men who slaughter kiss the calves!”
“My people ask from their Wood, and their Staff declares to them. For a spirit of whorings has led them astray, and they went whoring from under their Elohim.
“When Ephrayim saw his sickness, and Yehuḏah saw his wound, then Ephrayim went to Ashshur and sent to Sovereign Yarĕḇ. But he is unable to heal you, or to remove the wound from you.
“And it shall be in that day,” declares יהוה of hosts, “that I cut off the names of the idols from the earth, and they shall be remembered no more, and I shall also remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the earth.
“Only, he is not to increase horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Mitsrayim to increase horses, for יהוה has said to you, ‘Do not return that way again.’