| New Living Translation | King James Bible |
| 1O people of Israel, do not rejoice as other nations do. For you have been unfaithful to your God, hiring yourselves out like prostitutes, worshiping other gods on every threshing floor. | 1Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor. |
| 2So now your harvests will be too small to feed you. There will be no grapes for making new wine. | 2The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. |
| 3You may no longer stay here in the LORD’s land. Instead, you will return to Egypt, and in Assyria you will eat food that is ceremonially unclean. | 3They shall not dwell in the LORD'S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria. |
| 4There you will make no offerings of wine to the LORD. None of your sacrifices there will please him. They will be unclean, like food touched by a person in mourning. All who present such sacrifices will be defiled. They may eat this food themselves, but they may not offer it to the LORD. | 4They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD. |
| 5What then will you do on festival days? How will you observe the LORD’s festivals? | 5What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD? |
| 6Even if you escape destruction from Assyria, Egypt will conquer you, and Memphis will bury you. Nettles will take over your treasures of silver; thistles will invade your ruined homes. | 6For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles. |
| 7The time of Israel’s punishment has come; the day of payment is here. Soon Israel will know this all too well. Because of your great sin and hostility, you say, “The prophets are crazy and the inspired men are fools!” | 7The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. |
| 8The prophet is a watchman over Israel for my God, yet traps are laid for him wherever he goes. He faces hostility even in the house of God. | 8The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. |
| 9The things my people do are as depraved as what they did in Gibeah long ago. God will not forget. He will surely punish them for their sins. | 9They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins. |
| 10The LORD says, “O Israel, when I first found you, it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But then they deserted me for Baal-peor, giving themselves to that shameful idol. Soon they became vile, as vile as the god they worshiped. | 10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved. |
| 11The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will not be born or grow in the womb or even be conceived. | 11As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception. |
| 12Even if you do have children who grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. | 12Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them! |
| 13I have watched Israel become as beautiful as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children for slaughter.” | 13Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. |
| 14O LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth and breasts that give no milk. | 14Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. |
| 15The LORD says, “All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. | 15All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters. |
| 16The people of Israel are struck down. Their roots are dried up, and they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children.” | 16Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. |
| 17My God will reject the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey. They will be wanderers, homeless among the nations. | 17My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations. |
| 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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