‘Ephraim will receive shame,
And Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel (or ‘disobedience').
As for Samaria, her king is cut off,
As a twig (wood chip) on the water.'
But the idol will not be the only thing to be shamed. Ephraim too will receive shame as he is carried off ignominiously to Assyria, and in turn, as Israel, he will be ashamed of his own disobedience, or of the failure of his own counsel. Alternately it has been suggested that the word for ‘disobedience' (from the root ‘atsah) signifies rather ‘a piece of wood' (see Jeremiah 6:6 where the same root in the feminine (‘etsah) means trees), the idea then being that they are ashamed of their idol which has been revealed to be just another mute piece of wood (‘golden' only meant that it was gold-plated).
And what about Samaria? Her king will be cut off, falling as it were like a wood chip on turbulent water, ignominiously borne wherever the flow of the armies of Assyria decided to carry him.