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Ephraim Punished

^1 (C1)Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation as do the pagan peoples,
For you have ^(C2)played the prostitute, turning away from your God.
You have loved prostitutes' earnings on every threshing floor attributing the harvest to the Baals instead of to God.

² The threshing floor and the wine press will ^(C1)no longer feed them,
And the new wine will fail them because they failed to honor the God who provides.

³ They will not remain in ^(C1)the land of the LORD,
But Ephraim will return to another ^(C2)Egypt in bondage
And they will eat ceremonially ^(C3)unclean food in ^(C4)Assyria. ^(VR1)

⁴ They will not pour out drink offerings of ^(C1)wine to the LORD;
^(C2)Their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their bread will be like mourners' bread eaten at funerals;
All who eat it will be ceremonially ^(C3)unclean,
For their bread will be for themselves;
It will not enter the house of the LORD to be consecrated.

^5 (C1)What will you do on the day of the appointed festival
And on the day of the ^(C2)feast of the LORD when you are in exile?

⁶ For behold, they will go away because of devastation and destruction;
Egypt will gather them up, ^(C1)Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will take over their treasures of silver;
^(C2)Thorns will grow in their tents.

⁷ The days of ^(C1)punishment have come;
The days of ^(C2)retribution are at hand;
Let Israel know this!
The prophet is considered a ^(C3)fool;
The man of God who is inspired is treated as if ^(C4)demented,
Because of the abundance of your ^(C5)wickedness and guilt,
And because your deep antagonism toward God and the prophets is so great. ^(VR1)

⁸ Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a true prophet to warn the nation;
But the snare of a bird catcher was laid in all his paths.
And there is only deep hostility in the house of his God (the land of Israel).

⁹ They have ^(C1)deeply corrupted (perverted) themselves
As in the days of ^(C2)Gibeah.
The LORD will ^(C3)remember their wickedness and guilt;
He will punish their sins. ^(VR1)

¹⁰ I found Israel like ^(C1)grapes in the wilderness an unexpected and refreshing delight;
I saw your fathers (ancestors) as the ^(C2)first ripe fruit on the fig tree in its first season,
But they came to ^(C3)Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to ^(C4)shamefulness the worship of Baal,
And because of their spiritual and physical adultery they became as ^(C5)detestable and loathsome as the thing they loved.

¹¹ As for Ephraim, their ^(C1)glory will fly away like a bird;
No birth, no pregnancy, and because of their impurity no conception.

¹² Even though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them until not one is left.
^(C1)Indeed, woe (judgment is coming) to them when I look away and withdraw My blessing from them!

¹³ Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pleasant and prosperous meadow like ^(C1)Tyre;
But Ephraim will bring out his children to the executioner for slaughter.

¹⁴ Give them the punishment they deserve, O LORD! What will You give?
Give them a ^(C1)miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵ All their wickedness says the LORD is focused in ^(C1)Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the ^(C2)wickedness of their idolatrous practices
I will drive them out of My house (the land of Israel)!
I will love them no longer;
All their princes are ^(C3)rebels. ^(VR1)

^16 (C1)Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will bear ^(C2)no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will slay the ^(C3)precious children of their womb.

¹⁷ My God will reject them and cast them away
Because they did ^(C1)not listen to Him;
And they will be ^(C2)wanderers (fugitives) among the nations.