1. Israel, don’t rejoice.Don’t celebrate as other nations do.You have been unfaithful to your God.You have sold sex on every threshing floor.
2. There won’t be enough grain to feed people.There won’t be enough wine to go around.
3. The people of Ephraim won’t stay in the Lord’s land.They will return to Egypt,and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4. They won’t pour wine offerings to the Lord,and their sacrifices won’t please him.Their sacrifices will be like the food that mourners eat.All who eat this food will be unclean.Their food will only satisfy their hunger.It will not be brought ⌊as an offering⌋ to the Lord’s temple.
5. What will they do on the day of an appointed festivalor on the Lord’s festival days?
6. Even if they escape without being destroyed,Egypt will capture themand Memphis will bury them.Weeds will grow over their silver treasures.Thorns will grow over their tents.
7. The time for them to be punished will come.The time for them to pay for their sins will come.⌊When this happens,⌋ Israel will know it.⌊They think that⌋ prophets are foolsand that spiritual people are crazy.They have sinned a lot, and they are very hostile.
8. Prophets are God’s watchmen over Ephraim.Yet, traps are set on every prophet’s path,and people are hostile in the temple of their God.