9Don't waste your life in wild orgies, Israel. Don't party away your life with the heathen. You walk away from your God at the drop of a hat and like a whore sell yourself promiscuously at every sex-and-religion party on the street.H8055H3478H1524H5971H2181H430H157H868H1637H17152All that party food won't fill you up. You'll end up hungrier than ever.H1637H3342H7462H8492H35843At this rate you'll not last long in GOD's land: Some of you are going to end up bankrupt in Egypt. Some of you will be disillusioned in Assyria.H3427H3068H776H669H7725H4714H398H2931H8044As refugees in Egypt and Assyria, you won't have much chance to worship GOD— Sentenced to rations of bread and water, and your souls polluted by the spirit-dirty air. You'll be starved for GOD, exiled from GOD's own country.H5258H3196H3068H6149H2077H3899H205H398H2930H3899H5315H935H1004H30685Will you be homesick for the old Holy Days? Will you miss festival worship of GOD?H6213H4150H3117H3117H2282H30686Be warned! When you escape from the frying pan of disaster, you'll fall into the fire of Egypt. Egypt will give you a fine funeral! What use will all your god-inspired silver be then as you eke out a living in a field of weeds?H1980H7701H4714H6908H4644H6912H4261H3701H7057H3423H2336H1687Time's up. Doom's at the doorstep. It's payday! Did Israel bluster, "The prophet is crazy! The 'man of the Spirit' is nuts!"? Think again. Because of your great guilt, you're in big trouble.H3117H6486H935H3117H7966H935H3478H3045H5030H191H7307H376H7696H7230H5771H7227H48958The prophet is looking out for Ephraim, working under God's orders. But everyone is trying to trip him up. He's hated right in God's house, of all places.H6822H669H430H5030H6341H3352H1870H4895H1004H4309The people are going from bad to worse, rivaling that ancient and unspeakable crime at Gibeah. God's keeping track of their guilt. He'll make them pay for their sins.H6009H7843H3117H1390H2142H5771H6485H2403
They Took to Sin Like a Pig to Filth
10"Long ago when I came upon Israel, it was like finding grapes out in the desert. When I found your ancestors, it was like finding a fig tree bearing fruit for the first time. But when they arrived at Baal-peor, that pagan shrine, they took to sin like a pig to filth, wallowing in the mud with their newfound friends.H4672H3478H6025H4057H7200H1H1063H8384H7225H935H1187H5144H1322H8251H15711Ephraim is fickle and scattered, like a flock of blackbirds, their beauty dissipated in confusion and clamor, Frenetic and noisy, frigid and barren, and nothing to show for it—neither conception nor childbirth.H669H3519H5774H5775H3205H990H203212Even if they did give birth, I'd declare them unfit parents and take away their children! Yes indeed—a black day for them when I turn my back and walk off!H1431H1121H7921H120H188H549313I see Ephraim letting his children run wild. He might just as well take them and kill them outright!"H669H7200H6865H8362H5116H669H3318H1121H202614Give it to them, GOD! But what? Give them a dried-up womb and shriveled breasts.H5414H3068H5414H5414H7921H7358H6784H769915"All their evil came out into the open at the pagan shrine at Gilgal. Oh, how I hated them there! Because of their evil practices, I'll kick them off my land. I'm wasting no more love on them. Their leaders are a bunch of rebellious adolescents.H7451H1537H8130H7455H4611H1644H1004H160H3254H8269H563716Ephraim is hit hard— roots withered, no more fruit. Even if by some miracle they had children, the dear babies wouldn't live—I'd make sure of that!"H669H5221H8328H3001H6213H6529H3205H4191H4261H99017My God has washed his hands of them. They wouldn't listen. They're doomed to be wanderers, vagabonds among the godless nations.H430H3988H8085H5074H1471
Dublin, OH
