1Ephraim 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. 2But 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. 3In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his strength he strove with an angel. 4Yea, 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. 5And the Lord God of hosts, the Eternal One is his memorial. 6Therefore do thou return to thy God: keep goodness and justice, and wait on thy God continually. 7But like a merchant, who hath the balances of deceit in his hand, loving to overreach, 8Did 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. 9And 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. 10And I have spoken through the prophets, and I myself have multiplied visions, and by the means of the prophets have I spoken in similitudes. 11If 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. 12And Jacob fled into the fields of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept the flocks. 13And by a prophet did the Lord bring Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he guarded. 14Yet 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.