“Why do you weigh out silver for what is not bread, and your labour for what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and let your being delight itself in fatness.
“They have sown wheat but reaped thorns, they have exhausted themselves – they do not profit. And they shall be ashamed of your harvest because of the burning displeasure of יהוה.”
“Therefore I shall turn back and shall take my grain in its time and My new wine in its season, and I shall take away My wool and My linen covering her nakedness.
“Ephrayim has been smitten, their root has dried up, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I shall put to death the precious ones of their womb.”
יהוה is patient and great in power, but by no means leaves unpunished. יהוה has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.
“You have sown much, but brought in little; eat, but do not have enough; drink, but you are not filled with drink; clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”