Study Desk

My people are destroyed for want of knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as cohen for me. Because you forgot the Torah of your God, I will also forget your children.

They will eat but not have enough and consort with whores but have no children, because they stopped listening to Adonai .

They sacrifice on the mountain peaks and offer incense on the hills under oaks, poplars and pistachio trees; because they give good shade. Therefore your daughters behave like whores, And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

I won't punish your daughters when they act like whores, or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; because the men are themselves going off with whores and sacrificing with prostitutes. Yes, a people without understanding will come to ruin."

Efrayim is oppressed, crushed by the judgment, because he deliberately sought out futility.

They return, but not upward; they are like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will die by the sword because of their angry talk. They will become a laughingstock in the land of Egypt.

"Put the shofar to your lips! Like a vulture [he swoops down] on the house of Adonai , because they have violated my covenant and sinned intentionally against my Torah.

The days of punishment have come, the days of retribution are here, and Isra'el knows it. [Yet they cry,] "The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit has gone crazy!" Because your iniquity is so great, the hostility [against you] is great.

"All their wickedness was already there in Gilgal; that's where I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will expel them from my house, I will love them no more; all their leaders are rebels.

My God will cast them aside, because they wouldn't listen to him, and they will become wanderers among the Goyim.

For now they will say, "We have no king, because we didn't fear Adonai — and what could a king do for us, anyway?"

If you sow righteousness for yourselves, you will reap according to grace. Break up unused ground for yourselves, because it is time to seek Adonai , till he comes and rains down righteousness upon you.

You have plowed wickedness, reaped iniquity and eaten the fruit of lies. Because you trusted in your own way, in your large numbers of warriors,

Thus will be done to you, Beit-El, because of your great wickedness; at dawn the king of Isra'el will be completely cut off.

He will not return to the land of Egypt, but Ashur will be his king, because they refused to repent.

The sword will fall on his cities, destroying the bars of his gates, because they follow their own advice.

class="poetry"> "When Isra'el was a child, I loved him; and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more [the prophets] called them, the farther they went from them. They sacrificed to the ba‘alim and offered incense to idols. "Yet it was I who taught Efrayim to walk; I took them by their arms. But they did not know that it was I who was healing them, who was guiding them on through human means with reins made of love. With them I was like someone removing the yoke from their jaws, and I bent down to feed them. He will not return to the land of Egypt, but Ashur will be his king, because they refused to repent. The sword will fall on his cities, destroying the bars of his gates, because they follow their own advice. My people are hanging in suspense about returning to me; and though they call them upwards, nobody makes a move. Efrayim, how can I give you up, or surrender you, Isra'el? How could I treat you like Admah or make you like Tzvoyim? My heart recoils at the idea, as compassion warms within me. I will not give vent to the fierceness of my rage, I will not return to destroy Efrayim; for I am God, not a human being, the Holy One among you; so I will not come in fury. They will go after Adonai , who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west. They will tremble like a bird as they come from Egypt, like a dove as they come from the land of Ashur; and I will resettle them in their own houses, says Adonai .

Wake up, drunkards, and weep! wail, all you who drink wine, because the juice of the grape will be withheld from your mouth.

The seed-grain is rotting in its furrows; the granaries are deserted, the barns in ruins; because the grain has withered.

How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep bear the punishment, too.