⁷ The days of punishment have come,
The days of retribution have come;
^[i]Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a fool,
The ^[j]inspired person is insane,
Because of the grossness of your wrongdoing,
And because your ^[k]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 ^[l]hostility in the house of his God.
⁹ They are deeply depraved
As in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their guilt,
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 ^[m]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 of their children ^[n]until not a person is left.
Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
¹³ Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pasture like Tyre;
But Ephraim is going to bring out his children for slaughter.
¹⁴ Give to them, Lord—what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up 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 no longer love them;
All their leaders are rebels.
¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will produce no fruit.
Even though they give birth to children,
I will put to death the precious ones of their womb.
¹⁷ My God will reject them
Because they have not listened to Him;
And they will be wanderers among the nations.