1 Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,  *

for you have acted promiscuously,  * leaving your God.

You love the wages of a prostitute

on every grain-threshing floor.  *

2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,  *

and the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not stay in the land of the  Lord.

Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,  *

and they will eat unclean food  * in Assyria.  *

4 They will not pour out

their wine offerings to the  Lord,  *

and their sacrifices will not please him.

Their food will be like the bread of mourners;

all who eat it become defiled.  *

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,  *

on the day of the  Lord’s feast?  *

6 For even if they flee from devastation,

Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.  *

Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;

thorns will invade their tents.  *

7 The days of punishment have come;  *

the days of retribution have come.  *

Let Israel recognize it!

The prophet is a fool,  *

and the inspired man is insane,  *

because of the magnitude

of your iniquity and hostility.  *

8 Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.

Yet the prophet encounters a bird trap

on all his pathways.  *

Hostility is 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 punish their sins.  *

10 I discovered Israel

like grapes in the wilderness.  *

I saw your ancestors

like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.  *

But they went to Baal-peor,  *

consecrated themselves to Shame,  *,*

and became abhorrent,  *

like the thing they loved.

11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:  *

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.  *

12 Even if they raise children,

I will bereave them of each one.

Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!  *

13 I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,  *

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!  *

15 All their evil appears at Gilgal,  *

for there I began to hate them.

I will drive them from my house

because of their evil, wicked actions.  *

I will no longer love them;

all their leaders are rebellious.  *

16 Ephraim  * is struck down;

their roots are withered;

they cannot bear fruit.  *

Even if they bear children,

I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.  *

17 My God will reject them

because they have not listened to him;  *

they will become wanderers among the nations.  *