Ephraim Faces Punishment

9 Do not rejoice, O Israel,

do not exult like the nations!

For you played the whore, departing from your God;

you loved a harlot’s wage

on all the threshing floors of grain.

2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not feed them,

and new wine will fail her.a

3 They will not remain

in the land of Yahweh.

But Ephraim will return to Egypt,

and in Assyria they will eat unclean food.

4 They will not pour drink offerings of wine to Yahweh,

and their sacrifices will not please him.

They are like mourners’ bread for them;

all those who eat it will be defiled.

For their bread will be ⌊for their hunger⌋;b

it will not come to the house of Yahweh.

5 What will you do on the day of the appointed time,

and on the day of the festival of Yahweh?

6 For look! If they flee from the destruction,

Egypt will gather them;

Memphisc will bury them.

Nettles will possess

their precious things of silver;

thorns will be in their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come;

the days of retribution have come;

Israel knows!

The prophet is a fool,

the man of the spirit is acting like a madman.

Because of the greatness of your sin,

your hostility is great.

8 The prophet keeps watch over Ephraim for my God;

the snare of a fowler is on all his ways,

and hostility in the house of his God.

9 ⌊They deeply corrupted themselves⌋d

as in the days of Gibeah;

he will remember their sin,

he will punish their sins.

10 Like the grapes in the wilderness,

I found Israel.

Like early ripened fruit on the fig tree in the first season,e

I saw your ancestors.f

They themselves came to Baal Peor,

and they consecrated themselves to shame.

And they became detestable things,

like ⌊the thing they love⌋.g

11 Ephraim’s glory is like a bird;

it will fly away—

no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.

12 Even though they bring up their children,

I will bereave them before maturity.h

Woe to them indeed,

when I depart from them!

13 Ephraim, as I see it,

is like a palm in a meadow;

but Ephraim must bring out

his children to the slayer.

14 Give them, O Yahweh—

what will you give them?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

15 Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal,

so I began to hate them there;

because of the evil of their deeds

I will drive them out from my house.

I will love them no more;

all their officials are rebels.

16 Ephraim is stricken,

their root is dried up,

they shall not bear fruit.

Even if they give birth,

I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.

17 My God will reject them

because they did not listen to him,

and they will be wanderers among the nations.