| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1"Don't celebrate, Israel, like other nations would rejoice, because you left your God by committing fornication, loving the profit you gained on all of the threshing floors. | 1O people of Israel, do not rejoice as other nations do. For you have been unfaithful to your God, hiring yourselves out like prostitutes, worshiping other gods on every threshing floor. |
| 2Neither threshing floor nor winepress will sustain them, and the new wine will disappoint her. | 2So now your harvests will be too small to feed you. There will be no grapes for making new wine. |
| 3They will not live in the LORD's land— Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria. | 3You may no longer stay here in the LORD’s land. Instead, you will return to Egypt, and in Assyria you will eat food that is ceremonially unclean. |
| 4They won't present wine offerings to the LORD, nor will they please him. Their sacrifices will seem like food for mourners— everyone who eats them will become unclean; none of them will enter the Temple of the LORD. | 4There you will make no offerings of wine to the LORD. None of your sacrifices there will please him. They will be unclean, like food touched by a person in mourning. All who present such sacrifices will be defiled. They may eat this food themselves, but they may not offer it to the LORD. |
| 5"What will you do on the designated holiday, when the LORD's festival comes? | 5What then will you do on festival days? How will you observe the LORD’s festivals? |
| 6Look! They have gone away because of the destruction— Egypt will gather them up, and Memphis will bury them. Weeds will overgrow their inheritance, and thorns will grow in their tents. | 6Even if you escape destruction from Assyria, Egypt will conquer you, and Memphis will bury you. Nettles will take over your treasures of silver; thistles will invade your ruined homes. |
| 7The time for your judgment has now come; payday is here— and Israel knows it. The prophet is a fool, and the spiritual man is insane. Because of your great sin, the hatred against you is great. | 7The time of Israel’s punishment has come; the day of payment is here. Soon Israel will know this all too well. Because of your great sin and hostility, you say, “The prophets are crazy and the inspired men are fools!” |
| 8While Ephraim stands watch with my God, the prophet has snares set that will trap his ways, and hostility lodges in the Temple of his God. | 8The prophet is a watchman over Israel for my God, yet traps are laid for him wherever he goes. He faces hostility even in the house of God. |
| 9They have corrupted themselves deeply, as did Gibeah in its day. Therefore God will remember their lawlessness, and he will pay them back for their sins. | 9The things my people do are as depraved as what they did in Gibeah long ago. God will not forget. He will surely punish them for their sins. |
| 10"I found Israel, as one finds grapes in the wilderness; Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit gleaned from a fig tree's first harvest. When they went to Baal-peor, they devoted themselves to that filth, and they became loathsome, like what they loved. | 10The LORD says, “O Israel, when I first found you, it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But then they deserted me for Baal-peor, giving themselves to that shameful idol. Soon they became vile, as vile as the god they worshiped. |
| 11The glory of Ephraim will fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, not even a conception. | 11The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will not be born or grow in the womb or even be conceived. |
| 12Even if they rear their children, I will, in turn, make them childless— in fact, woe to them when I turn away from them! | 12Even if you do have children who grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. |
| 13Ephraim, as I see it, is like Tyre, planted in a comfortable place; Ephraim will bear children but they will be executed." | 13I have watched Israel become as beautiful as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children for slaughter.” |
| 14Give them, LORD— What will you give? You will give them a womb that miscarries and dry breasts. | 14O LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth and breasts that give no milk. |
| 15"All of their wickedness started in Gilgal, because I began to hate them there. Because of the wickedness of their behavior, I will drive them from my Temple. I will not love them anymore; all their leaders are rebels. | 15The LORD says, “All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. |
| 16Ephraim is blighted; its roots shriveled. It can bear no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will kill their cherished offspring. | 16The people of Israel are struck down. Their roots are dried up, and they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children.” |
| 17"My God will reject them, because they did not obey him, and they will become wanderers among the nations." | 17My God will reject the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey. They will be wanderers, homeless among the nations. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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