⁹ For they -- they have gone up `to' Asshur, A wild ass alone by himself `is' Ephraim, They have hired lovers!

¹¹ And Ephraim is as a simple dove without heart, Egypt they called on -- `to' Asshur they have gone.

¹³ And see doth Ephraim his sickness, and Judah his wound, And Ephraim goeth unto Asshur, And sendeth unto a warlike king, And he is not able to give healing to you, Nor doth he remove from you a scar.

²⁴ A wild ass accustomed to a wilderness, In the desire of her soul she hath swallowed up wind, Her meeting -- who doth turn her back? None seeking her do weary themselves, In her month they find her.

³³ To all whores they give a gift, And -- thou hast given thy gifts to all thy lovers, And dost bribe them to come in unto thee, From round about -- in thy whoredoms.

³⁴ And the contrary is in thee from women in thy whoredoms, That after thee none doth go a-whoring; And in thy giving a gift, And a gift hath not been given to thee; And thou art become contrary.

¹ Ephraim is enjoying wind, And is pursuing an east wind, All the day lying and spoiling he multiplieth, And a covenant with Asshur they make, And oil to Egypt is carried.

¹⁰ And now do I reveal her dishonour before the eyes of her lovers, And none doth deliver her out of My hand.

⁵ For gone a-whoring hath their mother, Acted shamefully hath their conceiver, For she hath said, I go after my lovers, Those giving my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

⁶ Therefore, lo, I am hedging up thy way with thorns, And I have made for her a wall, And her paths she doth not find.

⁷ And she hath pursued her lovers, And she doth not overtake them, And hath sought them, and doth not find, And she hath said: I go, and I turn back unto My first husband, For -- better to me then than now.

⁵ And go a-whoring doth Aholah under Me, And she doteth on her lovers, On the neighbouring Assyrians,

⁶ Clothed with blue -- governors and prefects, Desirable young men all of them, Horsemen, riding on horses,

⁷ And she giveth her whoredoms on them, The choice of the sons of Asshur, All of them -- even all on whom she doted, By all their idols she hath been defiled.

⁸ And her whoredoms out of Egypt she hath not forsaken, For with her they lay in her youth, And they dealt with the loves of her virginity, And they pour out their whoredoms on her.

⁹ Therefore I have given her into the hand of her lovers, Into the hand of sons of Asshur on whom she doted.

⁶ The burden of the beasts of the south. Into a land of adversity and distress, Of young lion and of old lion, Whence `are' viper and flying saraph, They carry on the shoulder of asses their wealth, And on the hump of camels their treasures, Unto a people not profitable.

⁵ Who hath sent forth the wild ass free? Yea, the bands of the wild ass who opened?

⁶ Whose house I have made the wilderness, And his dwellings the barren land,

⁷ He doth laugh at the multitude of a city, The cries of an exactor he heareth not.

⁸ The range of mountains `is' his pasture, And after every green thing he seeketh.

¹⁹ Pul king of Asshur hath come against the land, and Menahem giveth to Pul a thousand talents of silver, for his hand being with him to strengthen the kingdom in his hand.