Hosea 9–10

Chapter 9

¹Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult notⁱ 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^j 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;^k

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,^l

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.

Chapter 10

¹Israel is a luxuriant vine

that yields its fruit.

The more his fruit increased

the more altars he built;

as his country improved

he improved his pillars.

²Their heart is false;

now they must bear their guilt.

The Lordⁿ will break down their altars,

and destroy their pillars.

³For now they will say:

“We have no king,

for we fear not the Lord,

and a king, what could he do for us?”

⁴They utter mere words;

with empty oaths they make covenants;

so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds

in the furrows of the field.

⁵The inhabitants of Samaria tremble

for the calf^o of Beth-aven.

Its people shall mourn for it,

and its idolatrous priests shall wail^p over it,

over its glory which has departed from it.

⁶Yea, the thing itself shall be carried to Assyria,

as tribute to the great king.^q

Ephraim shall be put to shame,

and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.^r

⁷Samaria’s king shall perish,

like a chip on the face of the waters.

⁸The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,

shall be destroyed.

Thorn and thistle shall grow up

on their altars;

and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us,

and to the hills, Fall upon us.

⁹From the days of Gibe-ah, you have sinned, O Israel;

there they have continued.

Shall not war overtake them in Gibe-ah?

¹⁰I will come^s against the wayward people to chastise them;

and nations shall be gathered against them

when they are chastised^t for their double iniquity.

¹¹Ephraim was a trained heifer

that loved to thresh,

and I spared her fair neck;

but I will put Ephraim to the yoke,

Judah must plow,

Jacob must harrow for himself.

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness,

reap the fruit^u of steadfast love;

break up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the Lord,

that he may come and rain salvation upon you.

¹³You have plowed iniquity,

you have reaped injustice,

you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your chariots^v

and in the multitude of your warriors,

¹⁴therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,

and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,

as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;

mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

¹⁵Thus it shall be done to you, O house of Israel,^w

because of your great wickedness.

In the storm^x the king of Israel

shall be utterly cut off.