9
The horrors of the coming exile
1 Rejoice not too loudly, Israel,
like the nations,
for you have commited adultery,
being untrue to your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floor and wine vat won’t feed them,
the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not stay in the Lord’s land,
but Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean.
4 They will not pour out libations of wine to the Lord,
nor please him with their sacrifices.
Their bread will be like the bread of mourners:
all who eat it will defile themselves.
For their bread will be only for their hunger,
it will not come into the Lord’s temple.
5 What will you do on the day of the festival?
Or on the day of the Lord’s feast?
6 Even if they flee from destruction,
Egypt will gather them,
Memphis will bury them.
Nettles will take possession of their treasure of silver,
thorns will push into their tents.
7 The days of punishment are come,
the days of recompense are at hand,
as soon the Israelites will know!
‘The prophet is a fool,
the inspired man is raving mad!’
It is because of the greatness of your iniquity
and the greatness of your hatred.
8 Ephraim acts the spy with my God,
a prophet finds the snares of a fowler are in all his ways.
In the house of his God they lay hostile plots,
9 they commit crimes as in the days of Gibeah,
God will remember their iniquity.
He will punish their sin.
Israel’s corruption
10 I found Israel
like finding grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your ancestors
like they were the first fruit on a fig tree,
but as soon as they came to Baal-peor,
they consecrated themselves to shamefulness,
and became as abominable as the object of their love.
11 Ephraim – like a bird his glory flies away.
There will be no more birth,
no more motherhood,
no more conception.
12 Even though they bring up their children,
I will bereave them until not one is left.
Woe to them when I turn away from them!
13 Ephraim – planted like Tyre in a meadow*Heb. uncertain. LXX: as I have seen, his sons are destined to be a prey,
But Ephraim too must lead forth their children to slaughter.
14 Give them, Lord – what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and shrivelled up breasts!
15 All their evil began in Gilgal,
there I learned to hate them.
Because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them,
for all their princes are rebels.
16 Ephraim is blighted,
their root withered.
If they do bear children,
I will slay the darlings of their womb,
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him,
and they will become wanderers among the nations.