- 1
- ¶ REJOICE not, O Israel, leap not for joy, as others do;
because you have gone astray from your God, you have loved gifts from every threshing floor.
- 2
- But the threshing floor and the winepress shall not satisfy them, and the oil shall fail them.
- 3
- They shall not dwell in the LORD’S land;
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
- 4
- They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall their sacrifices please him;
their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of affliction; all who eat of it shall be polluted; for their own bread shall not come into the house of the LORD.
- 5
- What will you do on the solemn feast day, and on the day of the feast of the LORD?
- 6
- For, lo, they are gone in the prey: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them;
their valuable things of silver, strangers shall inherit them; thorns shall grow in their tents.
- 7
- ¶ The days of vengeance have come, the days of recompense are near;
then Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, a dull man possessed by a spirit of stupidity; because of the multitude of your iniquity, your lasciviousness has been increased.
- 8
- The watchman of Ephraim was with my God;
but the prophet is a snare and a stumbling block in all his ways, and wantonness in the house of God.
- 9
- They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Ramtha;
therefore he will remember their iniquity, and he will punish them for their sins.
- 10
- I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw their fathers like the first fruit of the fig tree, but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves to that shameful thing, and became abominable like the things they loved.
- 11
- ¶ As for Ephraim, their glory has flown away like a bird, they are cut off from the birth, from the womb, and from the conception.
- 12
- Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, that there shall not be a man left;
yea, woe to them, for I will take vengeance upon them!
- 13
- Ephraim’s fate shall be like that of Tyre, as you have seen, though planted in a pleasant place with buildings;
likewise Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slaughter.
- 14
- Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou 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 smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bear children, I will cause them to die, even those who are tenderly beloved.
- 17
- My God will reject them because they did not hearken to him;
and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
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