[1] Don`t rejoice, Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for you have played
the prostitute, [departing] from your God; you have loved hire on every
grain-floor. [2] The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail her. [3] They shall not dwell in Yahweh`s land;
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in
Assyria. [4] They shall not pour out wine-offerings to Yahweh, neither
shall they be pleasing to him: their sacrifices shall be to them as the
bread of mourners; all who eat of it shall be polluted; for their bread
shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of Yahweh.
[5] What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the
feast of Yahweh? [6] For, behold, they have gone away from destruction;
[yet] Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant
things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their
tents. [7] The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have
come. Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man who has the
spirit is mad, for the abundance of your iniquity, and because the enmity
is great. [8] Ephraim [was] a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a
fowler`s snare is in all his ways, [and] enmity in the house of his God.
[9] They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: he
will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins. [10] I found Israel
like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the
fig-tree at its first season: but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated
themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which
they loved. [11] As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird:
there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception. [12]
Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, so that not a
man shall be left: yes, woe also to them when I depart from them! [13]
Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place: but
Ephraim shall bring out his children to the killer. [14] Give them, Yahweh
what will you give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. [15] All
their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the
wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house; I will love
them no more; all their princes are rebels. [16] Ephraim is struck, their
root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yes, though they bring forth,
yet will I kill the beloved fruit of their womb. [17] My God will cast them
away, because they did not listen to him; and they shall be wanderers among
the nations.
