1 Israel, do not be glad; do not rejoice to the point of exultation like the peoples, for you have gone whoring away from your God, loving a harlot's fee on every grain floor.
2 Neither threshing floor nor winepress will give them food, and the new wine will disappoint her.
3 They will not go on living in the LORD's land; Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria unclean food will be what they eat.
4 They will pour no wine to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices be pleasing to him; for them they will be like bread eaten in mourning, which makes everyone who eats it unclean. Their bread will be for their own appetite; it will not enter the house of the LORD.
5 What will you do when the day of the appointed feast comes, when the day of the LORD's festival arrives?
6 For look, they have gone, fleeing the devastation; Egypt will collect them, Memphis will bury them. Their prized silver will be overrun by nettles, and thorns will fill their tents.
7 The days of reckoning are here; the days of repayment are here; let Israel know it! "The prophet is a fool, the inspired man is out of his mind," so great is your iniquity, so great your hostility.
8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God; yet the prophet is a fowler's snare on all his ways, and hostility in the house of his God.
9 They have sunk deep in corruption, as in the days of Gibeah; he will call their iniquity to mind and punish their sins.
10 Finding Israel was like finding grapes in the desert; seeing your fathers was like seeing the earliest figs on a fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor and gave themselves over to the Shameful One, and they became as vile as what they loved.
11 Ephraim's glory will fly off like a bird: there will be no giving birth, no carrying in the womb, no conceiving.
12 And though they raise their children, I will bereave them until no one is left. Woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen, is like Tyre, planted in a meadow; yet Ephraim will bring out his children to the slayer.
14 Give them, O LORD — what will you give? Give them a womb that miscarries and breasts that are dry.
15 All their evil is found in Gilgal; it was there I began to hate them. For their wicked deeds I will drive them from my house; never again will I love them; every one of their princes is in revolt.
16 Ephraim has been struck; their root has withered, and fruit they will not produce. Even if they do bear children, I will slay the cherished fruit of their womb.
17 My God will spurn them because they would not listen to him, and they will roam among the nations.