¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken;
    ^(A)their root is dried up;
    they shall bear no fruit.
Even ^(B)though they give birth,
    ^(C)I will put their beloved children to death.

⁹ “Yet ^(A)it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,
    ^(B)whose height was like the height of the cedars
    and who was as strong as the oaks;
^(C)I destroyed his fruit above
    and his roots beneath.

²⁴ Therefore, ^(A)as the tongue of fire devours the stubble,
    and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so ^(B)their root will be ^(C)as rottenness,
    and their blossom go up like dust;
for they have ^(D)rejected the law of the Lord of hosts,
    and have ^(E)despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.