Israel’s Punishment 1 UST You people of Israel, do not celebrate joyfully the way other peoples do! I say this because you have been unfaithful to your God. You have loved the{ gifts that you thought were} payments from your idols at every threshing floor where people thresh grain. BSB BSB: Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
2 UST { Soon} the people will not have enough grain or wine, and the new wine will be gone. BSB BSB: The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail them.
3 UST The people of Israel will not continue to live in the land that belongs to Yahweh. Instead, the people of Ephraim will go back to{ being slaves as they were in} Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat food that God has forbidden them to eat. BSB BSB: They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 UST They will not pour out wine offerings to Yahweh, and their sacrifices will not please him. Their sacrifices will be like the food that is in the house with a dead body; everyone who eats that food will be unacceptable to God, because they will eat that food only for themselves; they will not bring it into Yahweh’ s temple. BSB BSB: They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the LORD.
5 UST You will not be able to celebrate the feasts that Yahweh appointed or the festivals that honor Yahweh. BSB BSB: What will you do on the appointed day, on the day of the LORD’s feast?
6 UST Look! Even if some of them escape when the Assyrians destroy their towns, people in Egypt will capture them, and people in{ the Egyptian capital city of} Memphis will bury them. Weeds will grow over the silver objects that they treasure, and thorns will fill their tents. BSB BSB: For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents.
7 UST Now is the time for God to punish the Israelites; now is the time for him to do to them as they deserve.{ When he does,} the people of Israel will know it!{ You say that} the prophet is a fool and{ that} the one whom the Spirit inspires is insane, but that is only because you have sinned so much and because you are very hostile{ toward God}. BSB BSB: The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.
8 UST Prophets watch over the people of Ephraim because my God told them to do so, but people set traps for them everywhere they go. People are hostile to them, even in the temple of their God. BSB BSB: The prophet is Ephraim’s watchman, along with my God, yet the snare of the fowler lies on all his paths. Hostility is in the house of his God!
9 UST The people have become very grievously sinful, just as the people of Gibeah were{ long ago}. God will not forget how wickedly they have acted; he will punish{ them for} their sins. BSB BSB: They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
11 UST What the people of Ephraim are most proud of will quickly disappear. No one will conceive, carry, or give birth to children. BSB BSB: Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
12 UST Even if they do raise children, I will take away every one of them so that none survive. Yes, indeed, it will be terrible for them when I abandon them! BSB BSB: Even if they raise their children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe be to them when I turn away from them!
13 UST I have decreed for Ephraim just as I have decreed for Tyre, that city in its beautiful place, that the people of Ephraim will bring out their own children for their enemies to slaughter.” BSB BSB: I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a meadow. But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
14 UST { Hosea says,}“So Yahweh, give to these people— but what can I ask you to give them? Give them miscarriages and no way to nurse babies.” BSB BSB: Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!
15 UST { Yahweh says,}“Because of all of the wicked things that my people have done at Gilgal, that is where I started to hate them. Because of all of the evil things that they do, I will drive them out of my land. I will not love them any longer; all of their leaders rebel against me. BSB BSB: All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.
16 UST I have struck the people of Ephraim so that they{ are as infertile as grapevines that} have shriveled roots and cannot produce fruit. Even if the women do give birth, I will kill the children whom they love.” BSB BSB: Ephraim is struck down; their root is withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay the darlings of their wombs.
17 UST { Hosea says,}“The God whom I worship will reject the people of Israel because they have not obeyed him. Therefore, they will wander among the{ other} nations{, away from their home}.” BSB BSB: My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.