Hosea 9–10

Israel Will Be Punished

9Israel, don’t be joyful.

Don’t be glad as the other nations are.

You haven’t been faithful to your God.

You love to get paid for being a prostitute.

Your pay is the grain at every threshing floor.

²But soon there won’t be any grain or wine to feed you.

There won’t even be any fresh wine.

³You won’t remain in the Lord’s land.

Ephraim, you will return to Egypt.

You will eat “unclean” food in Assyria.

⁴You won’t pour out wine offerings to the Lord.

Your sacrifices won’t please him.

They’ll be like the bread people eat when someone dies.

Everyone who eats those sacrifices will be “unclean.”

They themselves will have to eat that kind of food.

They can’t bring it into the Lord’s temple.

⁵What will you do when your appointed feasts come?

What will you do on the Lord’s special days?

⁶Some of you will escape without being destroyed.

But you will die in Egypt.

Your bodies will be buried at Memphis.

Weeds will cover your treasures of silver.

Thorns will grow up in your tents.

⁷The time when God will punish you is coming.

The day when he will judge you is near.

I want you to know that.

You have committed many sins.

And you hate me very much.

That’s why you think I’m foolish.

You think I’m crazy.

But the Lord speaks through me.

⁸People of Ephraim, I’m a true prophet.

My God is warning you through me.

But you set traps for me everywhere I go.

You hate me so much

you even wait for me in God’s house.

⁹You have sunk very deep into sin,

just as our people did at Gibeah long ago.

God will remember the evil things you have done.

He will punish you for your sins.

¹⁰The Lord says,

“When I first found Israel,

it was like finding grapes in the desert.

When I saw your people long ago,

it was like seeing the early fruit on a fig tree.

But then they went to Baal Peor.

There they gave themselves to that shameful god Baal.

They became as evil as the god they loved.

¹¹Ephraim’s greatness and glory will be gone.

It will fly away like a bird.

Women will no longer have children.

They will not be able to get pregnant.

¹²But suppose they do have children.

Then I will kill every one of them.

How terrible it will be for them

when I turn away from them!”

¹³Tyre is planted in a pleasant place.

And so is Ephraim.

But the Assyrians will kill

Ephraim’s children.

¹⁴Lord, what should you do to Ephraim’s people?

Give them women whose babies die before they are born.

Give them women whose breasts don’t have any milk.

¹⁵The Lord says,

“My people did many evil things in Gilgal.

That is why I hated them there.

They committed many sins.

So I will drive them out of my land.

I will not love them anymore.

All of their leaders refuse to obey me.

¹⁶Ephraim is like a worthless plant.

Its roots are dried up.

It does not produce any fruit.

Suppose Ephraim’s people have children.

Then I will kill the children they love so much.”

¹⁷My God will turn his back on his people.

They have not obeyed him.

So they will wander among other nations.

10Israel was like a spreading vine.

They produced fruit for themselves.

As they grew more fruit,

they built more altars.

As their land became richer,

they made the sacred stones they worshiped more beautiful.

²Their hearts are dishonest.

So now they must pay for their sins.

The Lord will tear their altars down.

He’ll destroy their sacred stones.

³Then they’ll say, “We don’t have a king.

That’s because we didn’t have

any respect for the Lord.

But suppose we did have a king.

What could he do for us?”

⁴They make a lot of promises.

They make agreements among themselves.

They take oaths they don’t mean to keep.

So court cases spring up

like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

⁵The people who live in Samaria are filled with fear.

They are afraid their god that looks like a calf

will be carried off from Bethel.

They will sob over it.

So will the priests who lead them to worship it.

The priests were full of joy

because their statue was so glorious.

But it will be captured

and taken far away from them.

⁶It will be carried off to Assyria.

The people of Ephraim will be forced

to give it to the great king.

They will be dishonored.

Israel will be ashamed

that all they have left to worship is a wooden god.

⁷Samaria’s king will be carried off.

He will be like a twig floating away in a river.

⁸The high places where Israel worshiped other gods

will be destroyed.

That’s where they sinned against the Lord.

Thorns and weeds will grow up there.

They will cover the altars.

Then the people will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”

They’ll say to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹The Lord says,

“Israel, you have done evil things

ever since your people sinned at Gibeah long ago.

And you are still doing what is evil.

War caught up

with those who sinned at Gibeah.

¹⁰So I will punish you when I want to.

Nations will gather together to fight against you.

They will put you in chains

because you have committed so many sins.

¹¹Ephraim, you were like a well-trained young cow.

It loved to thresh grain.

I spared its pretty neck

from pulling heavy loads.

But now I will make you do hard work.

Judah also must plow.

So all of the people of Jacob

must break up the ground.

¹²Your hearts are as hard as a field

that has not been plowed.

If you change your ways,

you will produce good crops.

So plant the seeds of doing what is right.

Then you will harvest the fruit of your faithful love.

It is time to turn to me.

When you do, I will come

and shower my blessings on you.

¹³But you have planted the seeds of doing what is wrong.

So you have harvested the fruit of your evil conduct.

You have had to eat the fruit of your lies.

You have trusted in your own strength.

You have depended on your many soldiers.

¹⁴But the roar of battle will come against you.

All of your forts will be completely destroyed.

It will happen just as Shalman

destroyed Beth Arbel in a battle.

Mothers and their children

were smashed on the ground.

¹⁵People of Bethel, that will happen to you.

You have committed far too many sins.

When the time for me to punish you comes,

your king will be completely destroyed.”