How horrible it will be for the arrogant drunks of Ephraim. Their glorious beauty is ⌞like⌟ a withered flower. They are at the entrance to a fertile valley where they lie drunk from wine.
We’ve all become unclean, and all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags. All of us shrivel like leaves, and our sins carry us away like the wind.
How long will the land mourn? How long will the plants in every field remain dried up? The animals and the birds are dying, because people are wicked. They think that God doesn’t know what they are doing.
“The roads to Zion are deserted. No one comes to the annual festivals. No one passes through any of its gates. Its priests are groaning. Its young women are made to suffer. Zion is bitter.