Otherwise, I'll strip her naked as she was on the day she was born make her like a wilderness, turn her into a parched land, and cause her to die of thirst.

Ephraim is blighted; its roots shriveled. It can bear no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will kill their cherished offspring.

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.'

I'll punish her for the time she has devoted to the Baals, to whom she burned incense, and for whom she put on her earrings and jewels so she could go after her lovers and forget me," declares the LORD.

I will confront them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their ribs. I will devour them like a lion the wild beasts will rip them apart.

There I will restore her vineyards to her, and the Valley of Achor will become a doorway to hope. There she will respond as she did in her youth, when she came up from Egypt."