Hosea 9

Hosea 9

Punishment for Israel’s Sin

1Do not rejoice, O Israel![#Isa 22.12, 13; Jer 44.17; Hos 4.12; 10.5]

Do not exult as other nations do,

for you have prostituted yourself, departing from your God.

You have loved a prostitute’s pay

on all threshing floors.

2Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,[#Hos 2.9]

and the new wine shall fail them.

3They shall not remain in the land of the Lord ,[#Jer 2.7; Ezek 4.13; Hos 7.11; 8.13]

but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,

and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food.

4They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord ,[#Jer 6.20; Hos 5.6; 8.13; Hag 2.14]

and their sacrifices shall not please him.

Such sacrifices 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[#Isa 10.3; Jer 5.31; Joel 1.13]

and on the day of the festival of the Lord ?

6For even if they escape destruction,[#Isa 5.6; Jer 2.16; Ezek 30.13, 16; Hos 8.13; 10.8]

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;[#Isa 34.8; Jer 10.15; 16.18; Ezek 14.9, 10; Mic 7.4]

the days of recompense have come.

Israel will cry out,

“The prophet is a fool;

the man of the spirit is mad!”

Because of your great iniquity,

your hostility is great.

8The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim,[#Hos 5.1]

yet a hunter’s snare is on all his ways

and hostility in the house of his God.

9They have deeply corrupted themselves[#Judg 19.12; Isa 31.6; Hos 5.8; 7.2; 8.13; 10.9]

as in the days of Gibeah;

he will remember their iniquity;

he will punish their sins.

10Like grapes in the wilderness,[#Num 25.3; Jer 11.13; 24.2; Hos 4.14; Mic 7.1]

I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree,

in its first season,

I saw your ancestors.

But they came to Baal-peor

and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame

and became detestable like the thing they loved.

11Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—[#v 14 ; Hos 4.7; 10.5]

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!

12Even if they bring up children,[#v 16 ; Hos 7.13]

I will bereave them until no one is left.

Woe to them indeed

when I depart from them!

13Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow,[#Ezek 27.3, 4; #9.13 Meaning of Heb uncertain]

but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter.

14Give them, O Lord —

what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

15Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal;[#Isa 1.23; Hos 4.9; 7.2; 12.2]

there I came 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 officials are rebels.

16Ephraim is stricken,[#v 12 ; Hos 5.11; 8.7]

their root is dried up,

they shall bear no fruit.

Even though they give birth,

I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.

17Because they have not listened to him,[#Deut 28.65; Hos 4.10]

my God will reject them;

they shall become wanderers among the nations.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ
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