To your palate a shophar The Shechinah says to the prophet: Let the voice of your palate be heard, and call like a shophar, and say: You enemies! Fly and hasten as the eagle swoops and come to the house of the Lord. To your palate a shophar, it is as though a shophar is placed to your palate. [after Jonathan]

To Me...will cry when evil befalls them...

“My God! We know You” Are we not Your people? Transpose it and interpret it. Israel will cry to Me, “My God! We know You!” But I will not heed them, for...

Israel has cast off the Good One Therefore, the enemy shall pursue him.

they removed Heb. הֵשִׁירוּ, they set up princes (שָּׂרִים). Another explanation: [הֵשִּׂירוּ is like הֵסִירוּ, they removed,] they removed this one from the throne and crowned this one, and in the book of the Masorah, this is proven, for he classified it in the Masorah of those written with a “shin” and read as a “samech,” bearing the meaning of the “samech.”

in order that it be cut off For they had much gold, and they caused for them that the wealth be cut off from them.

He has forsaken The Holy One, blessed be He, has forsaken you, children of Samaria, for the iniquity of the calves in Bethel, where the kings of Israel worship.

how long will they be unable to empty their hearts to be cleansed of that filth.

For it is from Israel From each one’s silver and gold it was collected, and the craftsman made it. And the “vav” of וְהוּא is superfluous, and there are many like it, e.g. (Ezekiel 47:11), “Its swamps and its pools shall not become healthy (וְלֹא יֵרָפְאוּ).” Here too, for its preparation is from Israel and it is made. And this “vav” may be reconciled in the following manner: כִּי מִיִשְׂרָאֵל וְהוּא Also, this calf came from them like the first calf.

splinters Heb. שְׁבָבִים, Jonathan renders: splinters of boards, and it is an Aramaic expression. cf. שִּׁיבָא מִכְּשּׁוּרָא (Sanhedrin 7b), a splinter of a beam.

it has no standing grain Their seed has no standing grain; i.e., they will not prosper with their deeds.

if it does produce Even if it produces flour.

strangers will swallow it Even if they prosper with their property, it will eventually fall into the hands of strangers.

a wild donkey secluded to himself He became like a wild donkey that goes alone to itself, sniffing air from place to place to wander.

they paid hire for love Heb. הִתְנוּ. Jonathan interprets it as an expression of a dragon; like this dragon that goes through the deserts. They sniffed the air like the dragon to acquire for themselves lovers, strange paramours. הִתְנוּ, endragonיrיnt in O.F., like the tremors of the nostrils of a dragon, [derived from תַּנִין. According to this derivation we render: dragonlike, they sought lovers.] It may also be explained as an expression of hire.

Although they pay hire among the nations Although they did this, that they paid for lovers of the nations.

now I will gather them When the time of their redemption arrives, I will not delay it.

and they will be humbled a little from the burden of the king and the princes And they will be humbled a little in their exile from the fear of the burden of the king and the princes, i.e. from the yoke of the kings of the nations among whom they were.

For Ephraim has increased Therefore, I will humble them with the burden of the king and the princes.

I write for them I constantly reprimand them through My prophets, and write for them the great things of My Law, but they are considered a strange thing.

As for the sacrifices they burn before Me Heb. זִבְחֵי הַבְהָבַי. The sacrifice of My burnt offerings that they scorch in the fire which is upon My altar.

let them slaughter the flesh and eat [it] Why do I need them to bring them? Let them slaughter so that they have flesh to eat and eat them, for I do not desire them.