The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 Ephraim, obsessed with god-fantasies, chases ghosts and phantoms. He tells lies nonstop, soul-destroying lies. Both Ephraim and Judah made deals with Assyria and tried to get an inside track with Egypt.
1
Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
2 God is bringing charges against Israel. Jacob's children are hauled into court to be punished.
2
The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
3 In the womb, that heel, Jacob, got the best of his brother. When he grew up, he tried to get the best of God.
3
He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:
4 But God would not be bested. God bested him. Brought to his knees, Jacob wept and prayed. God found him at Bethel. That's where he spoke with him.
4
Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;
5 God is God-of-the-Angel-Armies, God-Revealed, God-Known.
5
Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.
6 What are you waiting for? Return to your God! Commit yourself in love, in justice! Wait for your God, and don't give up on him - ever!
6
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.
7 The businessmen engage in wholesale fraud. They love to rip people off!
7
He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
8 Ephraim boasted, "Look, I'm rich! I've made it big! And look how well I've covered my tracks: not a hint of fraud, not a sign of sin!"
8
And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.
9 "But not so fast! I'm God, your God! Your God from the days in Egypt! I'm going to put you back to living in tents, as in the old days when you worshiped in the wilderness.
9
And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.
10 I speak through the prophets to give clear pictures of the way things are. Using prophets, I tell revealing stories.
10
I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.
11 I show Gilead rampant with religious scandal and Gilgal teeming with empty-headed religion. I expose their worship centers as stinking piles of garbage in their gardens."
11
Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.
12 Are you going to repeat the life of your ancestor Jacob? He ran off guilty to Aram, Then sold his soul to get ahead, and made it big through treachery and deceit.
12
And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
13 Your real identity is formed through God-sent prophets, who led you out of Egypt and served as faithful pastors.
13
And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.
14 As it is, Ephraim has continually and inexcusably insulted God. Now he has to pay for his life-destroying ways. His Master will do to him what he has done.
14
Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.