The Lord Will Punish Israel
Rejoice not, O Israel!
Exult not like the peoples;
afor you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
bYou have loved a prostitute’s wages
on all threshing floors.
2 aThreshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and athe new wine shall fail them.
3 They shall not remain in athe land of the Lord,
but bEphraim shall return to Egypt,
and cthey shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 aThey shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
band their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like cmourners’ bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
dit shall not come to the house of the Lord.
5 aWhat will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For behold, they are going away from destruction;
but aEgypt shall gather them;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess btheir precious things of silver;
cthorns shall be in their tents.
7 aThe days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come;
Israel shall know it.
bThe prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
and great hatred.
8 The prophet is athe watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet ba fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
9 aThey have deeply corrupted themselves
as bin the days of Gibeah:
ahe will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.
10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
aI found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But bthey came to Baal‑peor
and cconsecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and dbecame detestable like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s aglory shall fly away like a bird—
bno birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 aEven if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
bWoe to them
when cI depart from them!
13 Ephraim, aas I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow;
but bEphraim must lead his children out to slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord—
what will you give?
Give them aa miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15 Every evil of theirs is in aGilgal;
there I began to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all btheir princes are crebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken;
atheir root is dried up;
they shall bear no fruit.
Even bthough they give birth,
cI will put their beloved children to death.
17 aMy God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
bthey shall be wanderers among the nations.