Hosea 9

Punishment for Israel

9Do not rejoice, Israel;

do not be jubilant^b like the other nations.

For you have been unfaithful^c to your God;

you love the wages of a prostitute^d

at every threshing floor.

²Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;

the new wine^e will fail them.

³They will not remain^f in the Lord’s land;

Ephraim will return to Egypt^g

and eat unclean food in Assyria.^h

⁴They will not pour out wine offeringsⁱ to the Lord,

nor will their sacrifices please^j him.

Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;^k

all who eat them will be unclean.^l

This food will be for themselves;

it will not come into the temple of the Lord.^m

⁵What will you doⁿ on the day of your appointed festivals,^o

on the feast days of the Lord?

⁶Even if they escape from destruction,

Egypt will gather them,^p

and Memphis^q will bury them.^r

Their treasures of silver^s will be taken over by briers,

and thorns^t will overrun their tents.

⁷The days of punishment^u are coming,

the days of reckoning^v are at hand.

Let Israel know this.

Because your sins^w are so many

and your hostility so great,

the prophet is considered a fool,^x

the inspired person a maniac.^y

⁸The prophet, along with my God,

is the watchman over Ephraim,^a

yet snares^z await him on all his paths,

and hostility in the house of his God.^a

⁹They have sunk deep into corruption,^b

as in the days of Gibeah.^c

God will remember^d their wickedness

and punish them for their sins.^e

¹⁰“When I found Israel,

it was like finding grapes in the desert;

when I saw your ancestors,

it was like seeing the early fruit^f on the fig^g tree.

But when they came to Baal Peor,^h

they consecrated themselves to that shameful idolⁱ

and became as vile as the thing they loved.

¹¹Ephraim’s glory^j will fly away like a bird^k—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.^l

¹²Even if they rear children,

I will bereave^m them of every one.

Woeⁿ to them

when I turn away from them!^o

¹³I have seen Ephraim,^p like Tyre,

planted in a pleasant place.^q

But Ephraim will bring out

their children to the slayer.”^r

¹⁴Give them, Lord—

what will you give them?

Give them wombs that miscarry

and breasts that are dry.^s

¹⁵“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,^t

I hated them there.

Because of their sinful deeds,^u

I will drive them out of my house.

I will no longer love them;^v

all their leaders are rebellious.^w

¹⁶Ephraim^x is blighted,

their root is withered,

they yield no fruit.^y

Even if they bear children,

I will slay^z their cherished offspring.”

¹⁷My God will reject^a them

because they have not obeyed^b him;

they will be wanderers among the nations.^c