Hosea 9–12

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.

Chapter 11

God Yearns over His People

¹When Israel was a youth I loved him,

And ^aout of Egypt I ^bcalled My son.

²The more ^1athey called them,

The more they went from them;

They kept ^bsacrificing to the Baals

And ^cburning incense to idols.

³Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,

¹I ^atook them in My arms;

But they did not know that I ^bhealed them.

⁴I ^aled them with cords of a man, with bonds of love,

And ^bI became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws;

And I bent down and ^cfed them.

⁵¹They will not return to the land of Egypt;

But Assyria—he will be ²their king

Because they ^arefused to return to Me.

⁶The ^asword will whirl against ¹their cities,

And will demolish their gate bars

And ^bconsume them because of their ^ccounsels.

⁷So My people are bent on ^aturning from Me.

Though ¹they call ²them to the One on high,

None at all exalts Him.

^8aHow can I give you up, O Ephraim?

How can I surrender you, O Israel?

How can I ¹make you like ^bAdmah?

How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

My heart is turned over within Me,

²All My compassions are kindled.

⁹I will ^anot execute My fierce anger;

I will not destroy Ephraim ^bagain.

For ^cI am God and not man, the ^dHoly One in your midst,

And I will not come in ¹wrath.

¹⁰They will ^awalk after the Lord,

He will ^broar like a lion;

Indeed He will roar

And His sons will come ^ctrembling from the west.

¹¹They will come trembling like birds from ^aEgypt

And like ^bdoves from the land of Assyria;

And I will ^csettle them in their houses, declares the Lord.

¹²¹Ephraim surrounds Me with ^alies

And the house of Israel with deceit;

Judah is also unruly against God,

Even against the Holy One who is faithful.

Chapter 12

Ephraim Reminded

¹¹Ephraim feeds on ^awind,

And pursues the ^beast wind continually;

He multiplies lies and violence.

Moreover, ²he makes a covenant with Assyria,

And oil is carried to Egypt.

²The Lord also has a ^adispute with Judah,

And will punish Jacob ^baccording to his ways;

He will repay him according to his deeds.

³In the womb he ^atook his brother by the heel,

And in his maturity he ^bcontended with God.

⁴Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed;

He wept and ^asought His favor.

He found Him at ^bBethel

And there He spoke with us,

⁵Even the Lord, the God of hosts,

The Lord is His ^1aname.

⁶Therefore, ^areturn to your God,

^bObserve ¹kindness and justice,

And ^cwait for your God continually.

⁷A ¹merchant, in whose hands are false ^abalances,

He loves to oppress.

⁸And Ephraim said, “Surely I have become ^arich,

I have found wealth for myself;

In all my labors they will find in me

^bNo iniquity, which would be sin.”

⁹But I have been the Lord your God since the land of Egypt;

I will make you ^alive in tents again,

As in the days of the appointed festival.

¹⁰I have also spoken to the ^aprophets,

And I ¹gave numerous visions,

And through the prophets I gave ^bparables.

¹¹Is there iniquity in Gilead?

Surely they are worthless.

In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls,

Yes, ^atheir altars are like the stone heaps

Beside the furrows of the field.

¹²Now ^aJacob fled to the ¹land of Aram,

And ^bIsrael worked for a wife,

And for a wife he kept sheep.

¹³But by a ^aprophet the Lord brought Israel from Egypt,

And by a prophet he was kept.

^14aEphraim has provoked to bitter anger;

So his Lord will leave his ^bbloodguilt on him

And bring back his ^creproach to him.