Read the Bible

Ephraim Punished

^1 (C1)Do not rejoice, O Israel, ^(F1)with exultation like the ^(F2)nations!
For you have ^(C2)played the harlot, ^(F3)forsaking your God.
You have loved harlots' earnings on ^(F4)every threshing floor.

² Threshing floor and wine press will ^(C1)not feed them,
And the new wine will fail ^(F1)them.

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

⁴ They will not pour out drink offerings of ^(C1)wine to the LORD,
^(C2)Their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their bread will ^(F1)be like ^(F2)mourners' bread;
All who eat of it will be ^(C3)defiled,
For their bread will be for ^(F3)themselves alone;
It will not enter the house of the LORD.

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

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

⁷ The days of ^(C1)punishment have come,
The days of ^(C2)retribution have come;
^(F1)Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a ^(C3)fool,
The ^(F2)inspired man is ^(C4)demented,
Because of the grossness of your ^(C5)iniquity,
And because your hostility is so great.

⁸ Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

⁹ They have gone ^(C1)deep ^(F1)in depravity
As in the days of ^(C2)Gibeah;
He will ^(C3)remember their iniquity,
He will punish their sins.

¹⁰ I found Israel like ^(C1)grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your forefathers as the ^(C2)earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.
But they came to ^(C3)Baal-peor and devoted themselves to ^(F1)(C4)shame,
And they became as ^(C5)detestable as that which they loved.

¹¹ As for Ephraim, their ^(C1)glory will fly away like a bird--
No birth, no pregnancy and no conception!

¹² Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them ^(F1)until not a man is left.
Yes, ^(C1)woe to them indeed when I depart from them!

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

¹⁴ Give them, O LORD--what will You give?
Give them a ^(C1)miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵ All their evil is at ^(C1)Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the ^(C2)wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will love them no more;
All their princes are ^(C3)rebels.

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

¹⁷ My God will cast them away
Because they have ^(C1)not listened to Him;
And they will be ^(C2)wanderers among the nations.