After many benefits, great affliction shall fall upon the ten tribes, for their ingratitude to God.

 1 Israel a vine full of branches, the fruit is agreeable to it: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath multiplied altars, according to the plenty of his land he hath abounded with idols.  2 Their heart is divided: now they shall perish: he shall break down their idols, he shall destroy their altars.  3 For now they shall say: We have no king: because we fear not the Lord: and what shall a king do to us?  4 You speak words of an unprofitable vision, and you shall make a covenant: and judgment shall spring up as bitterness in the furrows of the field.  5 The inhabitants of Samaria have worshipped the kine of Bethaven: for the people thereof have mourned over it, and the wardens of its temple that rejoiced over it in its glory because it is departed from it.

[5] "The kine of Bethaven": The golden calves of Jeroboam.

 6 For itself also is carried into Assyria, a present to the avenging king: shame shall fall upon Ephraim, and Israel shall be confounded in his own will.  7 Samaria hath made her king to pass as froth upon the face of the water.  8 And the high places of the idol, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed: the bur and the thistle shall grow up over their altars: and they shall say to the mountains: Cover us; and to the hills: Fall upon us.  9 From the days of Gabaa, Israel hath sinned, there they stood: the battle in Gabaa against the children of iniquity shall not overtake them.  10 According to my desire I will chastise them: and the nations shall be gathered together against them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.

[6] "Itself also is carried": One of the golden calves was given by king Manahem, to Phul, king of the Assyrians, to engage him to stand by him.

[10] "Their two iniquities": Their two calves.

 11 Ephraim is a heifer taught to love to tread out corn, but I passed over upon the beauty of her neck: I will ride upon Ephraim, Juda shall plough, Jacob shall break the furrows for himself.  12 Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy, break up your fallow ground: but the time to seek the Lord is, when he shall come that shall teach you justice.  13 You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lying: because thou hast trusted in thy ways, in the multitude of thy strong ones.  14 A tumult shall arise among thy people: and all thy fortresses shall be destroyed as Salmana was destroyed, by the house of him that judged Baal in the day of battle, the mother being dashed in pieces upon her children.  15 So hath Bethel done to you, because of the evil of your iniquities.

[14] "As Salmana was destroyed, by the house": Salmana, king of the Midianites, was destroyed by the house, that is, by the followers of him that judged Baal; that is, of Gideon, who threw down the altar of Baal; and was therefore called Jerubaal. See Judges 6 and 8.