9
“Do not rejoice, O Israel, do not be joyful like the peoples, || For you have gone whoring from your God, || You have loved a wage near all floors of grain. Floor and winepress do not feed them, || And new wine fails in her, They do not abide in the land of YHWH, || And Ephraim has turned back [to] Egypt, || And they eat an unclean thing in Asshur. They do not pour out wine to YHWH, || Nor are they sweet to Him, || Their sacrifices [are] as bread of mourners to them, || All eating it are unclean: For their bread [is] for themselves, || It does not come into the house of YHWH. What do you do at the day appointed? And at the day of YHWH’s festival? For behold, they have gone because of destruction, || Egypt gathers them, Moph buries them, || The desirable things of their silver, || Nettles possess them—a thorn [is] in their tents. The days of inspection have come in, || The days of repayment have come in, Israel knows! The prophet [is] a fool, || Mad [is] the man of the spirit, || Because of the abundance of your iniquity, || And great [is] the hatred. Ephraim is looking [away] from My God, || The prophet! A snare of a fowler [is] over all his ways, || Hatred [is] in the house of his God. They have gone deep—have done corruptly, || As [in] the days of Gibeah, || He remembers their iniquity, He inspects their sins. 10 As grapes in a wilderness I found Israel, || As the first-fruit in a fig tree, at its beginning, I have seen your fathers, || They have gone in [to] Ba‘al-Peor, || And are separated to a shameful thing, || And have become abominable like their love. 11 Ephraim [is] as a bird, their glory flies away, without birth, and without womb, and without conception. 12 For though they nourish their sons, I have made them childless—without man, || Surely also, woe to them when I turn aside from them. 13 Ephraim! When I have looked to the rock, || Is planted in comeliness, || And Ephraim [is] to bring out his sons to a slayer. 14 Give to them, YHWH—what do You give? Give to them miscarrying womb, and dry breasts. 15 All their evil [is] in Gilgal, || Surely there I have hated them, || Because of the evil of their doings, || Out of My house I drive them, || I no longer love them, || All their heads [are] apostates. 16 Ephraim has been struck, || Their root has dried up, they do not yield fruit, || Indeed, though they bring forth, || I have put to death the desired of their womb. 17 My God rejects them, || Because they have not listened to Him, || And they are wanderers among nations!”