| New Living Translation | King James Bible |
| 1 The people of Israel feed on the wind; they chase after the east wind all day long. They pile up lies and violence; they are making an alliance with Assyria while sending olive oil to buy support from Egypt. | 1Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. |
| 2Now the LORD is bringing charges against Judah. He is about to punish Jacob for all his deceitful ways, and pay him back for all he has done. | 2The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. |
| 3Even in the womb, Jacob struggled with his brother; when he became a man, he even fought with God. | 3He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: |
| 4Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him. There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him — | 4Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; |
| 5the LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, the LORD is his name! | 5Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial. |
| 6So now, come back to your God. Act with love and justice, and always depend on him. | 6Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually. |
| 7But no, the people are like crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales— they love to cheat. | 7He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. |
| 8Israel boasts, “I am rich! I’ve made a fortune all by myself! No one has caught me cheating! My record is spotless!” | 8And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin. |
| 9“But I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. And I will make you live in tents again, as you do each year at the Festival of Shelters. | 9And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast. |
| 10I sent my prophets to warn you with many visions and parables.” | 10I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets. |
| 11But the people of Gilead are worthless because of their idol worship. And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls; their altars are lined up like the heaps of stone along the edges of a plowed field. | 11Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields. |
| 12Jacob fled to the land of Aram, and there he earned a wife by tending sheep. | 12And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. |
| 13Then by a prophet the LORD brought Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt; and by that prophet they were protected. | 13And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved. |
| 14But the people of Israel have bitterly provoked the LORD, so their Lord will now sentence them to death in payment for their sins. | 14Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. |
| Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. | King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. |
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