Ephraim is a well-trained calf that loves to thresh, but I will place a yoke on her fine neck. I will harness Ephraim; Judah will plough; Jacob will do the final ploughing.
Because you rejoice, because you celebrate – you who plundered my inheritance – because you frolic like a young cow treading grain and neigh like stallions,
because such people do not serve our Lord Christ but their own appetites. , They deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting with smooth talk and flattering words.
Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do, for you have acted promiscuously, leaving your God. You love the wages of a prostitute on every grain threshing-floor.
Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.’
Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully. For she thought, ‘I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.’
For this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations that they might serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have even put the wild animals under him.” ’
Rise and thresh, Daughter Zion, for I will make your horns iron and your hooves bronze so that you can crush many peoples. Then you will set apart their plunder for the Lord, their wealth for the Lord of the whole earth.