Ephraim Punished
1 Do not rejoice, Israel, with jubilation like the nations! For you have been unfaithful, abandoning your God. You have loved the earnings of unfaithfulness on every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them, And the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land, But Ephraim will return to Egypt, And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord, Nor will their sacrifices please Him. Their bread will be to them like mourners’ bread; All who eat it will be defiled, Because their bread will be for themselves alone; It will not enter the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival And on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For behold, they will be gone because of destruction; Egypt will gather them together, Memphis will bury them. Weeds will take possession of their treasures of silver; Thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come, The days of retribution have come; Let Israel know this! The prophet is a fool, The inspired person is insane, Because of the grossness of your wrongdoing, And because your hostility is so great.
8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet; Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways, And there is only hostility in the house of his God.
9 They are deeply depraved As in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt, He will punish their sins.
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season. But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame, And they became as detestable as that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird— No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children, Yet I will bereave them of their children until not a person is left. Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen, Is planted in a pasture like Tyre; But Ephraim is going to bring out his children for slaughter.
14 Give to them, Lord—what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts.
15 All their evil is at Gilgal; Indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will no longer love them; All their leaders are rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, They will produce no fruit. Even though they give birth to children, I will put to death the precious ones of their womb.
17 My God will reject them Because they have not listened to Him; And they will be wanderers among the nations.