12:7 The businessmen love to cheat;
they use dishonest scales.
12:8 Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich!
I have become wealthy!
In all that I have done to gain my wealth,
no one can accuse me of any offense that is actually sinful.”
12:9 “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt;
I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old.
12:10 I spoke to the prophets;
I myself revealed many visions;
I spoke in parables through the prophets.”
12:11 Is there idolatry in Gilead?
Certainly its inhabitants will come to nothing!
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 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 Israel was preserved alive.
12:14 But Ephraim bitterly provoked him to anger;
so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed,
his Lord will repay him for the contempt he has shown.