1With lies hath Ephraim encompassed me about, and with deceit, the house of Israel; but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful to the Holy One. 2Ephraim feedeth on wind, and pursueth the east wind; the whole day he increaseth deceit and corruption; and a covenant do they make with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt. 3But with Judah also hath the Lord to hold a controversy; and to punish Jacob according to his ways, according to his doings will he recompense him. 4In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his strength he strove with an angel. 5Yea, he strove with an angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him: in Beth-el he should find him, and there he will speak with us. 6And the Lord God of hosts, the Eternal One is his memorial. 7Therefore do thou return to thy God: keep goodness and justice, and wait on thy God continually. 8But like a merchant, who hath the balances of deceit in his hand, loving to overreach, 9Did Ephraim say, I am certainly become rich, I have acquired substance unto myself: it is all through my labors; they will find no iniquity in me, that could be sin. 10And I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: I will yet make thee dwell in tents, as in the days of antiquity. 11And I have spoken through the prophets, and I myself have multiplied visions, and by the means of the prophets have I spoken in similitudes. 12If in Gil’ad there was misfortune, it is because there was naught but idolatry; in Gilgal they sacrificed bullocks to idols: their altars also are as stone-heaps on the furrows of the fields. 13And Jacob fled into the fields of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept the flocks. 14And by a prophet did the Lord bring Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he guarded. Yet Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore will his Lord cast his blood-guiltiness upon him, and his reproach will he recompense unto him.