Study Desk

E'phraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity.

They turn to Ba'al; they are like a treacherous bow, their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Set the trumpet to your lips, for a vulture is over the house of the LORD, because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law.

Because E'phraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they have become to him altars for sinning.

The days 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.

Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; 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; all their princes are rebels.

My God will cast them off, because they have not hearkened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.

You have plowed iniquity, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your chariots and in the multitude of your warriors,

Thus it shall be done to you, O house of Israel, because of your great wickedness. In the storm the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.

They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me.

Sama'ria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Awake, you drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

The fields are laid waste, the ground mourns; because the grain is destroyed, the wine fails, the oil languishes.

Be confounded, O tillers of the soil, wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley; because the harvest of the field has perished.

Gird on sackcloth and lament, O priests, wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because cereal offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

The seed shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are ruined because the grain has failed.

How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep are dismayed.

Even the wild beasts cry to thee because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehosh'aphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations, and have divided up my land,