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¹ Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,^(a)
for you have acted promiscuously,^(b) leaving your God.
You have loved the wages of a prostitute
on every grain-threshing floor.^(c)
2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,^(d)
and the new wine will fail them.
³ They will not stay in the land of the Lord.
Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,^(e)
and they will eat unclean food^(f) in Assyria.^(g)

⁴ They will not pour out
their wine offerings to the Lord,^(h)
and their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their food will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat it become defiled.⁽ⁱ⁾
For their bread will be for their appetites alone;
it will not enter the house of the Lord.
⁵ What will you do on a festival day,^(j)
on the day of the Lord's feast?^(k)
6 For even if they flee from devastation,
Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.^(l)
Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;
thorns will invade their tents.^(m)

⁷ The days of punishment have come;⁽ⁿ⁾
the days of retribution have come.^(o)
Let Israel recognize it!
The prophet is a fool,^(p)
and the inspired man is insane,^(q)
because of the magnitude
of your guilt and hostility.^(r)
8 Ephraim's watchman is with my God.
The prophet encounters a fowler's snare
on all his ways.^(s)
Hostility is in the house of his God!
⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves^(t)
as in the days of Gibeah.^(u)
He will remember their guilt;
He will punish their sins.^(v)

¹⁰ I discovered Israel
like grapes in the wilderness.^(w)
I saw your fathers
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.^(x)
But they went to Baal-peor,^(y)
consecrated themselves to Shame,^[a](z)
and became detestable,^(aa)
like the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird:^(ab)
no birth, no gestation, no conception.^(ac)
12 Even if they raise children,
I will bereave them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!^(ad)
13 I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,^(ae)
planted in a meadow,
so Ephraim will bring out his children
to the executioner.
¹⁴ Give them, Lord—
What should You give?
Give them a womb that miscarries
and breasts that are dry!^(af)

¹⁵ All their evil appears at Gilgal,^(ag)
for there I came to hate them.
I will drive them from My house
because of their evil, wicked actions.^(ah)
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.^(ai)
16 Ephraim^(aj) is struck down;
their roots are withered;
they cannot bear fruit.^(ak)
Even if they bear children,
I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.^(al)
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to Him;^(am)
they will become wanderers among the nations.^(an)