1 The people of Israel feed on the wind;they chase after the east wind all day long.They pile up lies and violence;they are making an alliance with Assyriawhile sending olive oil to buy support from Egypt.
2 Now the lord is bringing charges against Judah.He is about to punish Jacob for all his deceitful ways,and pay him back for all he has done.
3 Even in the womb,Jacob struggled with his brother;when he became a man,he even fought with God.
4 Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won.He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him.There at Bethel he met God face to face,and God spoke to him—
5 the lord God of Heaven’s Armies,the lord is his name!
6 So now, come back to your God.Act with love and justice,and always depend on him.
7 But no, the people are like crafty merchantsselling from dishonest scales—they love to cheat.
8 Israel boasts, “I am rich!I’ve made a fortune all by myself!No one has caught me cheating!My record is spotless!”
9 “But I am the lord your God,who rescued you from slavery in Egypt.And I will make you live in tents again,as you do each year at the Festival of Shelters.
10 I sent my prophets to warn youwith many visions and parables.”
11 But the people of Gilead are worthlessbecause of their idol worship.And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls;their altars are lined up like the heaps of stonealong the edges of a plowed field.
12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram,and there he earned a wife by tending sheep.
13 Then by a prophetthe lord brought Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt;and by that prophetthey were protected.
14 But the people of Israelhave bitterly provoked the lord,so their Lord will now sentence them to deathin payment for their sins.