"Look how I'm blocking her path with thorns and building a wall to hinder her, so she can't find her way.

She will pursue her lovers, but she won't catch up with them. She will seek them, but she won't find them. Then she will say, "I'll go back and return to my first husband, because it was better for me then than now.'

They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.

"I found Israel, as one finds grapes in the wilderness; Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit gleaned from a fig tree's first harvest. When they went to Baal-peor, they devoted themselves to that filth, and they became loathsome, like what they loved.

Their hearts are divided; from now on they are to be found guilty. God will tear down their altars, he will destroy their stone idols.

He even fought the angel and won; he cried and prayed to him. Then at Bethel he found him, and there he spoke with us

Ephraim claims, "I have become rich, I have made a fortune! Because of all my wealth, no one will find any iniquity or sin in me.'

"Ephraim, what have I in common with idols? I have listened and will pay attention to him. I am like a flourishing cypress; in me will your fruit be found."