What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, O Judah? For your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist; it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew!

So what will you do on the festival day, on the festival days of the Lord?

Give them, O Lord – what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry, and breasts that cannot nurse!

Very soon they will say, “We have no king since we did not fear the Lord. But what can a king do for us anyway?”

O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do with idols anymore! I will answer him and care for him. I am like a luxuriant cypress tree; your fruitfulness comes from me!