8. God has sent me as a prophet to warn his people Israel. Yet wherever I go, you try to trap me like a bird. Even in God's Temple the people are the prophet's enemies.
9. They are hopelessly evil in what they do, just as they were at Gibeah. God will remember their sin and punish them for it.
10. The Lord says, “When I first found Israel, it was like finding grapes growing in the desert. When I first saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But when they came to Mount Peor, they began to worship Baal, and soon became as disgusting as the gods they loved.
11. Israel's greatness will fly away like a bird, and there will be no more children born to them, no more women pregnant, no more children conceived.
12. But even if they did bring up children, I would take them away and not leave one alive. When I abandon these people, terrible things will happen to them.”
13. Lord, I can see their children being hunted down and killed.
14. What shall I ask you to do to these people? Make their women barren! Make them unable to nurse their babies!
15. The Lord says, “All their evil-doing began in Gilgal. It was there that I began to hate them. And because of the evil they have done, I will drive them out of my land. I will not love them any more; all their leaders have rebelled against me.
16. The people of Israel are like a plant whose roots have dried up and which bears no fruit. They will have no children, but even if they did, I would kill the children so dear to them.”
17. The God I serve will reject his people, because they have not listened to him. They will become wanderers among the nations.