12:7 The businessmen love to cheat; 1
they use dishonest scales. 2
12:8 Ephraim boasts, 3 “I am very rich!
I have become wealthy! 4
In all that I have done to gain my wealth, 5
no one can accuse me of any offense 6 that is actually sinful.” 7
12:9 “I am the Lord your God 8 who brought you 9 out of Egypt;
I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old. 10
12:10 I spoke to the prophets;
I myself revealed many visions; 11
I spoke in parables 12 through 13 the prophets.”
12:11 Is there idolatry 14 in Gilead? 15
Certainly its inhabitants 16 will come to nothing! 17
Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?
Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!
12:12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram,
then Israel worked 18 to acquire a wife;
he tended sheep to pay for her.
12:13 The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet,
and due to a prophet 19 Israel 20 was preserved alive. 21
12:14 But Ephraim bitterly 22 provoked him to anger;
so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed, 23
his Lord 24 will repay him for the contempt he has shown. 25