³ Assyria can't save us. We won't ride on horses; Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, 'Our gods!' For in you the fatherless finds mercy."

⁵ A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, Is God in his holy habitation.

¹⁴ But you do see trouble and grief; You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.

¹⁷ A horse is a vain thing for safety, Neither does he deliver any by his great power.

¹⁶ but you said, No, for we will flee on horses; therefore shall you flee: and, We will ride on the swift; therefore shall those who pursue you be swift.

¹ 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 don't look to the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Yahweh!

¹⁷ For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, And they will no more be mentioned by their name.

¹³ When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, And sent to king Jareb: But he is not able to heal you, Neither will he cure you of your wound.

⁸ Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green fir tree; From me your fruit is found."

¹¹ "Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.

⁶ For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; Indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself.

¹ Ephraim feeds on wind, And chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, And oil is carried into Egypt.

¹⁰ "It will happen in that day," says Yahweh, "That I will cut off your horses out of the midst of you, And will destroy your chariots.

¹¹ I will cut off the cities of your land, And will tear down all your strongholds.

¹² I will destroy witchcraft from your hand; And you shall have no soothsayers.

¹³ I will cut off your engraved images and your pillars out of your midst; And you shall no more worship the work of your hands.

¹⁴ I will uproot your Asherim out of your midst; And I will destroy your cities.

² It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will no more be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land.

¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.

⁷ He said to me, Son of man, [this is] the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their prostitution, and by the dead bodies of their kings [in] their high places;

⁸ in their setting of their threshold by my threshold, and their door-post beside my door-post, and there was [but] the wall between me and them; and they have defiled my holy name by their abominations which they have committed: therefore I have consumed them in my anger.

⁹ Now let them put away their prostitution, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will dwell in the midst of them forever.

²³ neither shall they defile themselves any more 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 shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

¹⁶ Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, You shall henceforth return no more that way.

⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him, Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on Yahweh your God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of your hand.

⁷ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, But we trust the name of Yahweh our God.

⁸ They are bowed down and fallen, But we rise up, and stand upright.

³ Don't put your trust in princes, Each a son of man in whom there is no help.

⁹ Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, But the way of the wicked he turns upside down.

¹⁰ Don't move the ancient boundary stone. Don't encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹ For their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

²⁹ For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, And you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.

²⁰ In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver, And their idols of gold, Which have been made for themselves to worship, To the moles and to the bats;

⁹ Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in sunder, [so that] the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more.

² that set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!

³ Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit: and when Yahweh shall stretch out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

⁸ Now therefore, please give pledges to 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.

¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.

¹⁹ Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh.

²¹ Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.

²² How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man.

²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

²² "You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.

²³ If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry;

²⁴ and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.