Ephraim Punished
aDo not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations!
For you have bplayed the harlot, forsaking your God.
You have loved harlots’ earnings on every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floor and wine press will anot feed them,
And the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not remain in athe Lord’s land,
But Ephraim will return to bEgypt,
And in cAssyria they will eat dunclean food.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of awine to the Lord,
bTheir sacrifices will not please Him.
Their bread will be like mourners’ bread;
All who eat of it will be cdefiled,
For their bread will be for themselves alone;
It will not enter the house of the Lord.
5 aWhat will you do on the day of the appointed festival
And on the day of the bfeast of the Lord?
6 For behold, they will go because of destruction;
Egypt will gather them up, aMemphis will bury them.
Weeds will take over their treasures of silver;
bThorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of apunishment have come,
The days of bretribution have come;
Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a cfool,
The inspired man is ddemented,
Because of the grossness of your einiquity,
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 have gone adeep in depravity
As in the days of bGibeah;
He will cremember their iniquity,
He will punish their sins.
10 I found Israel like agrapes in the wilderness;
I saw your forefathers as the bearliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.
But they came to cBaal‑peor and devoted themselves to dshame,
And they became as edetestable as that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their aglory 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 until not a man is left.
Yes, awoe to them indeed when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pleasant meadow like aTyre;
But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord—what will You give?
Give them a amiscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All their evil is at aGilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the bwickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will love them no more;
All their princes are crebels.
16 aEphraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will bear bno fruit.
Even though they bear children,
I will slay the cprecious ones of their womb.
17 My God will cast them away
Because they have anot listened to Him;
And they will be bwanderers among the nations.
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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