1 Rejoice not, O Israel!Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute’s wageson all threshing floors.
2 Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,and the new wine shall fail them.
3 They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please him.It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;all who eat of it shall be defiled;for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to 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 are going away from destruction;but Egypt shall gather them;Memphis shall bury them.Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;the days of recompense have come;Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool;the man of the spirit is mad,because of your great iniquityand great hatred.
8 The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,and hatred in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselvesas in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity;he will punish their sins.
10 Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel.Like the first fruit on the fig treein its first season,I saw your fathers.But they came to Baal-peorand consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,and became detestable like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Even if they bring up children,I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to themwhen I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow;but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord—what will you give?Give them a miscarrying womband dry breasts.
15 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;there I began to hate them.Because of the wickedness of their deedsI will drive them out of my house.I will love them no more;all their princes are rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up;they shall bear no fruit.Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.