2  “As God lives, ^cwho has taken away my right,

and the Almighty, who has made my soul ^dbitter,

3  as long as my breath is in me,

and ^ethe spirit of God is in my nostrils,

4  ^fmy lips will not speak falsehood,

and my tongue will not utter deceit.

5  Far be it from me to say that you are right;

^gtill I die I will not put away my ^hintegrity from me.

6  ⁱI hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;

my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

7  “Let my enemy be as the wicked,

and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.

8  For what is the ^jhope of the godless when God ^kcuts him off,

when God takes away his life?

9  Will God hear his cry

when distress comes upon him?

10  Will he ^ltake delight in the Almighty?

Will he call upon God at all times?

11  I will teach you concerning the hand of God;

what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.

12  Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;

why then have you become altogether vain?

13  “This is ^mthe portion of a wicked man with God,

and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:

14  If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword,

and his descendants have not enough bread.

15  Those who survive him the pestilence buries,

and his ⁿwidows do not weep.

16  Though he ^oheap up silver like dust,

and pile up clothing like clay,

17  he may pile it up, ^pbut the righteous will wear it,

and the innocent will divide the silver.

18  He builds his ^qhouse like a moth’s,

like a booth that a watchman makes.

19  ^rHe goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;

he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.

20  Terrors overtake him like a flood;

in the night a whirlwind carries him off.

21  The east wind lifts him up and he is ^sgone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

22  It¹ hurls at him without pity;

he flees from its² power in headlong flight.

23  It ^tclaps its hands at him

and hisses at him from its place.

1  Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult not like the peoples;

for you have ^pplayed the whore, forsaking your God.

You have loved a prostitute’s wages

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 ^qreturn to Egypt,

and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

4  They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,

and their ^rsacrifices shall not please him.

It shall be like ^smourners’ bread to them;

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 the ^tappointed festival,

and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

6  For behold, they are going away from destruction;

but Egypt shall gather them;

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;

thorns shall be in their tents.

7  The ^udays of punishment have come;

the days of recompense have come;

Israel shall know it.

The prophet is a fool;

the man of the spirit is mad,

because of your great iniquity

and great hatred.

8  The prophet is the ^vwatchman of Ephraim with my God;

yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

and hatred in the house of his God.

9  They have deeply corrupted themselves

^was in the days of Gibeah:

he will ^xremember 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 fathers.

^yBut they came to Baal-peor

and consecrated themselves to the 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 till none is left.

^zWoe to them

when I depart from them!

13  Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm¹ planted in a meadow;

but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.²

14  Give them, O Lord—

what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

15  Every evil of theirs is in ^aGilgal;

there I began to hate them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more;

^ball their princes are rebels.

16  Ephraim is stricken;

their root is dried up;

they shall bear no fruit.

Even though they give birth,

I will put their beloved children to death.

17  My God will reject them

because they have not listened to him;

they shall be wanderers among the nations.

1  Israel is a luxuriant vine

that yields its fruit.

^cThe more his fruit increased,

the more ^daltars he built;

as his country improved,

he improved his pillars.

2  Their heart is false;

now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord³ will break down their altars

and destroy their pillars.

3  For now they will say:

“We have no king,

for we do not fear the Lord;

and a king—what could he do for us?”

4  They utter mere words;

with empty^{4 e}oaths they make covenants;

so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds

in the furrows of the field.

5  The inhabitants of Samaria tremble

for the calf⁵ of ^fBeth-aven.

Its people mourn for it, and so do its ^gidolatrous priests—

those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—

for it has departed⁶ from them.

6  The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria

as tribute to the ^hgreat king.⁷

Ephraim shall be put to shame,

and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.⁸

7  ⁱSamaria’s king shall perish

like a twig on the face of the waters.

8  The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,

shall be destroyed.

Thorn and thistle shall grow up

on their altars,

and ^jthey shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”

and to the hills, “Fall on us.”

9  From the days of ^kGibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;

there they have continued.

Shall not the war against the unjust⁹ overtake them in Gibeah?

10  When I please, I will discipline them,

and nations shall be gathered against them

when they are bound up for their double iniquity.

11  Ephraim was a trained calf

that loved to thresh,

and I spared her fair neck;

but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;

Judah must plow;

Jacob must harrow for himself.

12  Sow for yourselves righteousness;

reap steadfast love;

^lbreak up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the Lord,

that he may ^mcome and rain ⁿrighteousness upon you.

13  ^oYou have plowed iniquity;

you have reaped injustice;

you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your own way

and in the multitude of your warriors,

14  therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,

and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,

as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;

mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

15  Thus it shall be done to you, O ^pBethel,

because of your great evil.

At dawn the king of Israel

shall be utterly cut off.

1  When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and ^qout of Egypt I called ^rmy son.

2  The more they were called,

the more they went away;

they kept sacrificing to the Baals

and ^sburning offerings to idols.

3  ^tYet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;

I took them up by their arms,

but they did not know that ^uI healed them.

4  I led them with cords of kindness,¹⁰

with the bands of love,

and I became to them as one who eases the ^vyoke on their jaws,

and I bent down to them and ^wfed them.

5  They shall not¹¹ return to the land of Egypt,

but Assyria shall be their king,

because they have refused to return to me.

6  The sword shall rage against their cities,

consume the bars of their gates,

and devour them because of their own counsels.

7  My people are bent on ^xturning away from me,

and though they call out to the Most High,

he shall not raise them up at all.

8  How can I give you up, O Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, O Israel?

^yHow can I make you like Admah?

How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

My heart recoils within me;

my compassion grows warm and tender.

9  I will not execute my burning anger;

I will not again destroy Ephraim;

for ^zI am God and not a man,

the Holy One in your midst,

and I will not come in wrath.¹²

10  They shall go after the Lord;

^ahe will roar like a lion;

when he roars,

^bhis children shall come trembling from the west;

11  they shall come trembling like birds ^cfrom Egypt,

and like doves from the land of Assyria,

and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.

12  ¹³ Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,

and the house of Israel with deceit,

but Judah still walks with God

and is faithful to the Holy One.

1  Ephraim feeds on the wind

and pursues the east wind all day long;

they multiply falsehood and violence;

^dthey make a covenant with Assyria,

and oil is carried to Egypt.

2  ^eThe Lord has an indictment against Judah

and will punish Jacob according to his ways;

he will repay him according to his deeds.

3  ^fIn the womb he took his brother by the heel,

and ^gin his manhood he strove with God.

4  He strove with the angel and prevailed;

he wept and sought his favor.

He met God¹⁴ at ^hBethel,

and there God spoke with us—

5  the Lord, the God of hosts,

ⁱthe Lord is his memorial name:

6  “So you, by the help of your God, ^jreturn,

^khold fast to love and justice,

and ^lwait continually for your God.”

7  A merchant, in whose hands are ^mfalse balances,

he loves to oppress.

8  Ephraim has said, “Ah, but ⁿI am rich;

I have found wealth for myself;

in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”

9  I am the Lord your God

from the land of Egypt;

I will again make you dwell in tents,

^oas in the days of the appointed feast.

10  I spoke to the prophets;

it was I who multiplied visions,

and through the prophets gave parables.

11  If there is iniquity in ^pGilead,

they shall surely come to nothing:

in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;

their ^qaltars also are like stone heaps

on the furrows of the field.

12  ^rJacob fled to the land of Aram;

^sthere Israel served for a wife,

and for a wife he guarded sheep.

13  By a ^tprophet the Lord brought Israel up from Egypt,

and by a prophet he was guarded.

14  Ephraim has given bitter provocation;

so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him

and will repay him for his disgraceful deeds.