1 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.
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; 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; Memphis 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 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, I saw your ancestors. They themselves came to Baal Peor, and they consecrated themselves to shame. And they became detestable things, like the thing they love.
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. 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.