9:11 Ephraim will be like a bird;
what they value 1 will fly away.
They will not bear children –
they will not enjoy pregnancy –
they will not even conceive! 2
9:12 Even if they raise their children,
I will take away every last one of them. 3
Woe to them!
For I will turn away from them.
9:13 Just as lion cubs are born predators, 4
so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.
9:14 Give them, O Lord –
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry,
and breasts that cannot nurse! 5
9:15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal,
I hate them there.
On account of their evil deeds,
I will drive them out of my land. 6
I will no longer love them;
all their rulers are rebels.
9:16 Ephraim will be struck down 7 –
their root will be dried up;
they will not yield any fruit.
Even if they do bear children,
I will kill their precious offspring.
9:17 My God will reject them,
for they have not obeyed him;
so they will be fugitives among the nations.
1 tn Heb “their glory” (so NASB); TEV “Israel’s greateness.”
2 tn Heb “no childbearing, no pregnancy, no conception.” The preposition מִן (min) prefixed to the three parallel nouns functions in a privative sense, indicating deprivation (BDB 583 s.v. מִן 7).
3 tn Heb “I will bereave them from a man”; NRSV “I will bereave them until no one is left.”
4 tc The MT is corrupt in 9:13. The BHS editors suggest emending the text to follow the LXX reading. See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 5:250-51.
5 tn Heb “breasts that shrivel up dry”; cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “dry breasts.”
6 tn Heb “out of my house” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV, NCV, NLT “my land.”
7 tn Or perhaps, following the plant metaphor, “will be blighted” (NIV similar).