The fading flower of his beautiful splendor,
which is on the summit above the rich valley,
will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest.(A)
Whoever sees it will swallow it
while it is still in his hand.

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That fading flower, his glorious beauty,
    set on the head of a fertile valley,(A)
will be like figs(B) ripe before harvest—
    as soon as people see them and take them in hand,
    they swallow them.

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Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring

10 I discovered Israel
like grapes in the wilderness.(A)
I saw your ancestors
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.(B)
But they went to Baal-peor,(C)
consecrated themselves to Shame,[a](D)
and became abhorrent,(E)
like the thing they loved.

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Footnotes

  1. 9:10 = Baal

10 “When I found Israel,
    it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
    it was like seeing the early fruit(A) on the fig(B) tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,(C)
    they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol(D)
    and became as vile as the thing they loved.

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Israel’s Moral Decline

How sad for me!
For I am like one who—
when the summer fruit has been gathered
after the gleaning of the grape harvest(A)
finds no grape cluster to eat,
no early fig, which I crave.(B)

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Israel’s Misery

What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
    at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
    none of the early figs(A) that I crave.

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