Arrival of divine judgment

¹Don’t rejoice, Israel!

²Threshing floor and wine vat won’t feed them;

³They won’t remain in the land of the LORD ;

⁴They won’t pour wine as an offering to the LORD ;

Such sacrifices will be like food for those who touch the dead;

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

⁶Even if they escape destruction,

Briars will possess their precious things of silver;

⁷The days of punishment have come;

Israel cries,

Because of your great wickedness,

Tragic consequences

⁸The prophet is God’s watchman

looking over Ephraim,

yet a hunter’s trap is set, covering all his ways,

⁹They have corrupted themselves terribly

he will remember their wickedness;

¹⁰Like grapes in the wilderness,

In its first season,

like the first fruit on the fig tree,

But they came to Baal-peor,

they became detestable like the thing they loved.

¹¹Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—

¹²Though they bring up children,

Doom to them indeed when I leave them!

¹³When I looked toward Tyre,

Ephraim was planted in a lovely meadow;

¹⁴Give them, LORD —

Give them a womb that miscarries

¹⁵Every wickedness of theirs began at Gilgal;

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

¹⁶Ephraim is sick,

Even though they give birth,

¹⁷Because they haven’t listened to him,