⁴ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
For your ^[b]loyalty is like a morning cloud
And like the dew which goes away early.
⁵ Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.
⁶ For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice,
And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
⁷ But like ^[c]Adam they have transgressed the covenant;
There they have dealt treacherously against Me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of wrongdoers,
Tracked with bloody footprints.
⁹ And as raiders wait for a man,
So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem;
Surely they have committed ^[d]crime.
¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
Ephraim’s harlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself.
¹¹ Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you,
When I restore the fortunes of My people.

⁸ Ephraim mixes himself with the ^[j]nations;
Ephraim has become a cake not turned.
⁹ Strangers devour his strength,
Yet he does not know it;
Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,
Yet he does not know it.
¹⁰ Though the pride of Israel testifies against him,
Yet they have not returned to the Lord their God,
Nor have they sought Him, for all this.
¹¹ So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without ^[k]sense;
They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
¹² When they go, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.
I will chastise them in accordance with the ^[l]proclamation to their assembly.
¹³ Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me!
Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!
I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.
¹⁴ And they do not cry to Me from their heart
When they wail on their beds;
For the sake of grain and new wine they ^[m]assemble themselves,
They turn away from Me.
¹⁵ Although I trained and strengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me.
¹⁶ They turn, but not ^[n]upward,
They are like a deceitful bow;
Their princes will fall by the sword
Because of the ^[o]insolence of their tongue.
This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

⁸ Israel is swallowed up;
They are now among the nations
Like a vessel in which no one delights.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like a wild donkey all alone;
Ephraim has hired ^[v]lovers.
¹⁰ Even though they hire allies among the nations,
Now I will gather them up;
And they will begin to ^[w]diminish
Because of the burden of the king of princes.

¹¹ Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,
They have become altars of sinning for him.
¹² Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law,
They are regarded as a strange thing.
¹³ As for My sacrificial gifts,
They sacrifice the flesh and eat it,
But the Lord has taken no delight in them.
Now He will remember their iniquity,
And punish them for their sins;
They will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,
But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.

⁷ The days of punishment have come,
The days of retribution have come;
^[af]Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a fool,
The ^[ag]inspired man is demented,
Because of the grossness of your iniquity,
And because your hostility is so great.
⁸ Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
And there is only hostility in the house of his God.
⁹ They have gone deep ^[ah]in depravity
As in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their iniquity,
He will punish their sins.

¹⁰ I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.
But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to ^[ai]shame,
And they became as detestable as that which they loved.
¹¹ As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy and no conception!
¹² Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them ^[aj]until not a man is left.
Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
¹³ Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pleasant meadow like Tyre;
But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
¹⁴ Give them, O Lord—what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵ All their evil is at Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will love them no more;
All their princes are rebels.
¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will bear no fruit.
Even though they bear children,
I will slay the precious ones of their womb.
¹⁷ My God will cast them away
Because they have not listened to Him;
And they will be wanderers among the nations.

⁴ Restore our captivity, O Lord,
As the ^[b]streams in the ^[c]South.
⁵ Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.
⁶ He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.