Hosea 9

Ephraim Faces Punishment

¹Do not rejoice, O Israel,

do not exult like the nations!

For you played the whore, departing from your God;

on all the threshing floors of grain.

and new wine will fail her.

But Ephraim will return to Egypt,

⁴They will not pour drink offerings of wine to Yahweh,

They are like mourners’ bread for them;

For their bread will be for their hunger;

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

⁶For look! If they flee from the destruction,

Nettles will possess

⁷The days of punishment have come;

the days of retribution have come;

The prophet is a fool,

Because of the greatness of your sin,

⁸The prophet keeps watch over Ephraim for my God;

⁹They deeply corrupted themselves[#Literally “They made deep, they corrupted themselves”]

he will remember their sin,

¹⁰Like the grapes in the wilderness,

Like early ripened fruit on the fig tree in the first season,

They themselves came to Baal Peor,

And they became detestable things,

¹¹Ephraim’s glory is like a bird;

¹²Even though they bring up their children,

Woe to them indeed,

¹³Ephraim, as I see it,

but Ephraim must bring out

¹⁴Give them, O Yahweh—

Give them a miscarrying womb

¹⁵Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal,

because of the evil of their deeds

I will love them no more;

¹⁶Ephraim is stricken,

Even if they give birth,

¹⁷My God will reject them