“Ephrayim has been stricken, 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.”
Hardly have they been planted, hardly have they been sown, hardly has their stock taken root in the earth, when He shall blow on them and they wither, and a whirlwind take them away like stubble.
Therefore, as a tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, their root is as rottenness, and their blossom goes up like dust – because they have rejected the Torah of יהוה of hosts, and despised the Word of the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.
Speak to the house of Yisra’ĕl, “Thus said the Master יהוה, ‘See, I am profaning My set-apart place – the pride of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and the delight of your being. And your sons and daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword.
“For look, the day shall come, burning like a furnace, and all the proud, and every wrongdoer shall be stubble. And the day that shall come shall burn them up,” said יהוה of hosts, “which leaves to them neither root nor branch.