The horrors of the coming exile
1Rejoice not too loudly, Israel,
like the nations,
for you have commited adultery,
being untrue to your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on every threshing floor.
2Threshing floor and wine vat won’t feed them,
the new wine will fail them.
3They will not stay in the Lord’s land,
but Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean.
4They will not pour out libations of wine to the Lord,
nor please him with their sacrifices.
Their bread will be like the bread of mourners:
all who eat it will defile themselves.
For their bread will be only for their hunger,
it will not come into the Lord’s temple.
5What will you do on the day of the festival?
Or on the day of the Lord’s feast?
6Even if they flee from destruction,
Egypt will gather them,
Memphis will bury them.
Nettles will take possession of their treasure of silver,
thorns will push into their tents.
7The days of punishment are come,
the days of recompense are at hand,
as soon the Israelites will know!
“The prophet is a fool,
the inspired man is raving mad!”
It is because of the greatness of your iniquity
and the greatness of your hatred.
8Ephraim acts the spy with my God,
a prophet finds the snares of a fowler are in all his ways.
In the house of his God they lay hostile plots,
9they commit crimes as in the days of Gibeah,
God will remember their iniquity.
He will punish their sin.
Israel’s corruption
10I found Israel
like finding grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your ancestors
like they were the first fruit on a fig tree,
but as soon as they came to Baal-peor,
they consecrated themselves to shamefulness,
and became as abominable as the object of their love.
11Ephraim – like a bird his glory flies away.
There will be no more birth,
no more motherhood,
no more conception.
12Even though they bring up their children,
I will bereave them until not one is left.
Woe to them when I turn away from them!
13Ephraim – planted like Tyre in a meadow,
But Ephraim too must lead forth their children to slaughter.
14Give them, Lord – what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and shrivelled up breasts!
15All their evil began in Gilgal,
there I learned to hate them.
Because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them,
for all their princes are rebels.
16Ephraim is blighted,
their root withered.
If they do bear children,
I will slay the darlings of their womb,
17My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him,
and they will become wanderers among the nations.