Even if they raise their children, I will take away every last one of them. ¹  Woe to them! For I will turn away from them.

They sow the wind, and so they will reap the whirlwind! The stalk does not have any standing grain; it will not produce any flour. Even if it were to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it all up.

Ephraim will be struck down ¹  – their root will be dried up; they will not yield any fruit. Even if they do bear children, I will kill their precious offspring.

Look! ¹  Even if ²  they flee from the destruction, Egypt will take hold ³  of them, and Memphis will bury them. The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure ⁴  – thorn bushes will occupy their homes. ⁵ 

Is there idolatry ¹  in Gilead? ²  Certainly its inhabitants ³  will come to nothing! ⁴  Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!

Israel will be swallowed up among the nations; they will be like a worthless piece of pottery.

I spelled out my law for him in great detail, but they regard it as something totally unknown ¹  to them!

Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch ¹  them; she will seek them, but she will not find them. ²  Then she will say, “I will go back ³  to my husband, ⁴  because I was better off then than I am now.” ⁵ 

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?”

My people are obsessed ¹  with turning away from me; ²  they call to Baal, ³  but he will never exalt them!

Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born. I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill ¹  her with thirst.

So let us acknowledge him! ¹  Let us seek ²  to acknowledge ³  the Lord! He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn, as certainly as the winter rain comes, as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.”

The time of judgment ¹  is about to arrive! ²  The time of retribution ³  is imminent! ⁴  Let Israel know! ⁵ The prophet is considered a fool ⁶  – the inspired man ⁷  is viewed as a madman ⁸  – because of the multitude of your sins and your intense ⁹  animosity.

Even now they persist in sin! ¹  They make metal images for themselves, idols that they skillfully fashion ²  from their own silver; all of them are nothing but the work of craftsmen! There is a saying about them: ³  “Those who sacrifice ⁴  to the calf idol are calf kissers!” ⁵