Hosea 9–10

9TH CHAPTER

¹Israel, don’t rejoice. 

Don’t celebrate as other nations do. 

You have been unfaithful to your God. 

You have sold sex on every threshing floor.^a

²There won’t be enough grain to feed people. 

There won’t be enough wine to go around. 

³The people of Ephraim won’t stay in the Lord’s land. 

They will return to Egypt, 

and they will eat unclean^bfood in Assyria. 

⁴They won’t pour wine offerings to the Lord, 

and their sacrifices won’t please him. 

Their sacrifices will be like the food that mourners eat. 

All who eat this food will be unclean. 

Their food will only satisfy their hunger. 

It will not be brought ⸤as an offering⸥ to the Lord’s temple. 

⁵What will they do on the day of an appointed festival 

or on the Lord’s festival days? 

⁶Even if they escape without being destroyed, 

Egypt will capture them 

and Memphis will bury them. 

Weeds will grow over their silver treasures. 

Thorns will grow over their tents. 

⁷The time for them to be punished will come. 

The time for them to pay for their sins will come. 

⸤When this happens,⸥ Israel will know it. 

⸤They think that⸥ prophets are fools 

and that spiritual people are crazy. 

They have sinned a lot, and they are very hostile. 

⁸Prophets are God’s watchmen over Ephraim. 

Yet, traps are set on every prophet’s path, 

and people are hostile in the temple of their God. 

⁹People have deeply corrupted themselves as they once did at Gibeah. 

God will remember their wickedness 

and punish them because of their sins. 

Israel Is Like Rotten Grapes or Rotten Figs

¹⁰⸤The Lord said,⸥ “When I found Israel, 

it was like finding grapes in the desert. 

When I saw your ancestors, 

it was like seeing the first figs of the harvest. 

But they went to Baal Peor and worshiped shameful idols. 

They became as disgusting as the things they worshiped. 

¹¹“Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird. 

There will be no more pregnancies, births, or babies. 

¹²Even if they bring up children, 

I will take those children away before they grow up. 

Yes, how horrible it will be for them when I leave them. 

¹³I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. 

But the people of Ephraim will bring out their children 

to be killed.” 

¹⁴Lord, give them what they deserve. 

Make the women miscarry, 

or else make them unable to nurse their babies. 

¹⁵“All Ephraim’s wickedness began in Gilgal; I hated the people there. 

I will force them out of my temple because of their wickedness, 

and I won’t love them anymore. 

All their officials are rebellious. 

¹⁶“The people of Ephraim are like sick plants. 

Their roots are dried up. 

They have no fruit. 

Even if they were to have children, 

I would kill their dear children.” 

¹⁷My God will reject them 

because they refused to listen to him. 

They will wander among the nations. 

10TH CHAPTER

Israel Is Like a Rotten Vine

¹The people of Israel are like vines that used to produce fruit. 

The more fruit they produced, 

the more altars they built. 

The more their land produced, 

the more stone markers they set up ⸤to honor other gods⸥. 

²They are hypocrites. Now they must take their punishment. 

God will tear down their altars and destroy their stone markers. 

³So they’ll say, 

“We have no king because we didn’t fear the Lord. 

Even if we had a king, he couldn’t do anything for us.” 

⁴They say many things. They lie when they take oaths, 

and they make promises they don’t intend to keep. 

That’s why lawsuits spring up 

like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field. 

⁵Those who live in Samaria fear the calf-shaped idol at Beth Aven. 

The people will mourn over it. 

The priests will cry loudly 

because its glory will be taken away into captivity. 

⁶The thing itself will be carried to Assyria 

as a present to the great king.^a

Ephraim will be disgraced. 

Israel will be ashamed because of its plans. 

⁷The king of Samaria will be carried away 

like a piece of wood on water. 

⁸The illegal worship sites of Aven will be destroyed. 

Israel sins there. 

Thorns and weeds will grow over those altars. 

People will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” 

and to the hills, “Fall on us!” 

⁹Israel, you have sinned ever since the incident at Gibeah. 

You never change. 

War will overtake the wicked people in Gibeah. 

¹⁰“I will punish them when I’m ready. 

Armies will gather to attack them. 

They will be punished for their many sins. 

Israel Is Like a Cow That Threshed Grain

¹¹“Ephraim is like a trained calf that loves to thresh^bgrain. 

I will put a yoke^con its beautiful neck. 

I will harness Ephraim. 

Judah must plow. 

Jacob must break up the ground. 

¹²“Break new ground. 

Plant righteousness, 

and harvest the fruit that your loyalty will produce for me.” 

It’s time to seek the Lord! 

When he comes, he will rain righteousness on you. 

¹³You have planted wickedness and harvested evil. 

You have eaten the fruit that your lies produced. 

You have trusted your own power and your many warriors. 

¹⁴So your army will hear the noise of battle. 

All your fortresses will be destroyed 

like the time Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in battle. 

Mothers and their children were smashed to death. 

¹⁵This is what will happen to you, Bethel, 

because you have done many wicked things. 

At daybreak, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.