Hosea 9

Chapter 9

¹Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult not like the peoples;

for you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.

You have loved a harlot’s hire

upon all threshing floors.

²Threshing floor and winevat shall not feed them,

and the new wine shall fail them.

³They shall not remain in the land of the Lord;

but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,

and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴They shall not pour libations of wine to the Lord;

and they shall not please him with their sacrifices.

Their bread shall be like mourners’ bread;

all who eat of it shall be defiled;

for their bread shall be for their hunger only;

it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

⁵What will you do on the day of appointed festival,

and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

⁶For behold, they are going to Assyria;

Egypt shall gather them,

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;

thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷The days of punishment have come,

the days of recompense have come;

Israel shall know it.

The prophet is a fool,

the man of the spirit is mad,

because of your great iniquity

and great hatred.

⁸The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim,

the people of my God,

yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

and hatred in the house of his God.

⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves

as in the days of Gibe-ah:

he will remember their iniquity,

he will punish their sins.

¹⁰Like grapes in the wilderness,

I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree,

in its first season,

I saw your fathers.

But they came to Baal-peor,

and consecrated themselves to Baal,

and became detestable like the thing they loved.

¹¹Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!

¹²Even if they bring up children,

I will bereave them till none is left.

Woe to them

when I depart from them!

¹³Ephraim’s sons, as I have seen, are destined for a prey;

Ephraim must lead forth his sons to slaughter.

¹⁴Give them, O Lord—

what wilt thou give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

¹⁵Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;

there I began to hate them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more;

all their princes are rebels.

¹⁶Ephraim is stricken,

their root is dried up,

they shall bear no fruit.

Even though they bring forth,

I will slay their beloved children.

¹⁷My God will cast them off,

because they have not hearkened to him;

they shall be wanderers among the nations.