1 Do not rejoice, O Israel! Do not exult as other nations do; for you have played the whore, departing from your God. You have loved a prostitute's pay on all threshing floors.

2 Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them.

3 They shall not remain in the land of the LORD; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food.

4 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD, and their sacrifices shall not please him. Such sacrifices shall be like mourners' bread; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the LORD.

5 What will you do on the day of appointed festival, and on the day of the festival of the LORD?

6 For even if they escape destruction, Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel cries, "The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad!" Because of your great iniquity, your hostility is great.

8 The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim, yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways, and hostility 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 Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw your ancestors. But they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.

11 Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird-- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!

12 Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them until no one is left. Woe to them indeed when I depart from them!

13 Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow, but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter.

14 Give them, O LORD-- what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

15 Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal; there I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their officials are rebels.

16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.

17 Because they have not listened to him, my God will reject them; they shall become wanderers among the nations.