Hosea 9–10

Chapter 9

Ephraim Punished

^1aDo not rejoice, O Israel, ¹with exultation like the ²nations!

For you have ^bplayed the harlot, ³forsaking your God.

You have loved harlots’ earnings on ⁴every threshing floor.

²Threshing floor and wine press will ^anot feed them,

And the new wine will fail ¹them.

³They will not remain in ^athe Lord’s land,

But Ephraim will return to ^bEgypt,

And in ^cAssyria they will eat ^dunclean food.

⁴They will not pour out drink offerings of ^awine to the Lord,

^bTheir sacrifices will not please Him.

Their bread will ¹be like ²mourners’ bread;

All who eat of it will be ^cdefiled,

For their bread will be for ³themselves alone;

It will not enter the house of the Lord.

^5aWhat will you do on the day of the appointed festival

And on the day of the ^bfeast of the Lord?

⁶For behold, they will go because of destruction;

Egypt will gather them up, ^aMemphis will bury them.

Weeds will take over their treasures of silver;

^bThorns will be in their tents.

⁷The days of ^apunishment have come,

The days of ^bretribution have come;

¹Let Israel know this!

The prophet is a ^cfool,

The ²inspired man is ^ddemented,

Because of the grossness of your ^einiquity,

And because your hostility is so great.

⁸Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;

Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,

And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

⁹They have gone ^adeep ¹in depravity

As in the days of ^bGibeah;

He will ^cremember their iniquity,

He will punish their sins.

¹⁰I found Israel like ^agrapes in the wilderness;

I saw your forefathers as the ^bearliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.

But they came to ^cBaal-peor and devoted themselves to ^1dshame,

And they became as ^edetestable as that which they loved.

¹¹As for Ephraim, their ^aglory will fly away like a bird—

No birth, no pregnancy and no conception!

¹²Though they bring up their children,

Yet I will bereave them ¹until not a man is left.

Yes, ^awoe to them indeed when I depart from them!

¹³Ephraim, as I have seen,

Is planted in a pleasant meadow like ^aTyre;

But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.

¹⁴Give them, O Lord—what will You give?

Give them a ^amiscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵All their evil is at ^aGilgal;

Indeed, I came to hate them there!

Because of the ^bwickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of My house!

I will love them no more;

All their princes are ^crebels.

^16aEphraim is stricken, their root is dried up,

They will bear ^bno fruit.

Even though they bear children,

I will slay the ^cprecious ones of their womb.

¹⁷My God will cast them away

Because they have ^anot listened to Him;

And they will be ^bwanderers among the nations.

Chapter 10

Retribution for Israel’s Sin

¹Israel is a ¹luxuriant ^avine;

He produces fruit for himself.

The more his fruit,

The more altars he ^bmade;

The ²richer his land,

The better ³he made the sacred ^cpillars.

²Their heart is ^1afaithless;

Now they must bear their ^bguilt.

²The Lord will ^cbreak down their altars

And destroy their sacred pillars.

³Surely now they will say, “We have ^ano king,

For we do not revere the Lord.

As for the king, what can he do for us?”

⁴They speak mere words,

¹With ^aworthless oaths they make covenants;

And ^bjudgment sprouts like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

⁵The inhabitants of Samaria will fear

For the ^1acalf of ^bBeth-aven.

Indeed, its people will mourn for it,

And its ^cidolatrous priests ²will cry out over it,

Over its ^dglory, since it has departed from it.

⁶The thing itself will be carried to ^aAssyria

As tribute to ^1bKing Jareb;

Ephraim will ²be ^cseized with shame

And Israel will be ashamed of its ^down counsel.

⁷Samaria will be ^acut off with her king

Like a stick on the surface of the water.

⁸Also the ^ahigh places of Aven, the ^bsin of Israel, will be destroyed;

^cThorn and thistle will grow on their altars;

Then they will ^dsay to the mountains,

“Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;

There they stand!

Will not the battle against the sons of iniquity overtake them in Gibeah?

¹⁰When it is My ^adesire, I will ^1bchastise them;

And ^cthe peoples will be gathered against them

When they are bound for their double guilt.

¹¹Ephraim is a trained ^aheifer that loves to thresh,

But I will ^bcome over her fair neck with a yoke;

I will harness Ephraim,

Judah will plow, Jacob will harrow for himself.

^12aSow with a view to righteousness,

Reap in accordance with ¹kindness;

^bBreak up your fallow ground,

For it is time to ^cseek the Lord

Until He ^dcomes to ^2erain righteousness on you.

¹³You have ^aplowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice,

You have eaten the fruit of ^blies.

Because you have trusted in your way, in your ^cnumerous warriors,

¹⁴Therefore a tumult will arise among your people,

And all your ^afortresses will be destroyed,

As Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle,

When ^bmothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

¹⁵Thus it will be done to you at Bethel because of your great wickedness.

At dawn the king of Israel will be completely cut off.