Hosea 9

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.