The Coming Exile
9 Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,(A)
for you have acted promiscuously,(B) leaving your God.
You love the wages of a prostitute
on every grain-threshing floor.(C)
2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,(D)
and the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not stay in the land of the Lord.
Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,(E)
and they will eat unclean food(F) in Assyria.(G)
4 They will not pour out
their wine offerings to the Lord,(H)
and their sacrifices will not please him.
Their food will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat it become defiled.(I)
For their bread will be for their appetites alone;
it will not enter the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do on a festival day,(J)
on the day of the Lord’s feast?(K)
6 For even if they flee from devastation,
Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.(L)
Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;
thorns will invade their tents.(M)
7 The days of punishment have come;(N)
the days of retribution have come.(O)
Let Israel recognize it!
The prophet is a fool,(P)
and the inspired man is insane,(Q)
because of the magnitude
of your iniquity and hostility.(R)
8 Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.
Yet the prophet encounters a bird trap
on all his pathways.(S)
Hostility is in the house of his God!
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves(T)
as in the days of Gibeah.(U)
He will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.(V)
Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring
10 I discovered Israel
like grapes in the wilderness.(W)
I saw your ancestors
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.(X)
But they went to Baal-peor,(Y)
consecrated themselves to Shame,[a](Z)
and became abhorrent,(AA)
like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:(AB)
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.(AC)
12 Even if they raise children,
I will bereave them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!(AD)
13 I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,(AE)
planted in a meadow,
so Ephraim will bring out his children
to the executioner.
14 Give them, Lord—
What should you give?
Give them a womb that miscarries
and breasts that are dry!(AF)
15 All their evil appears at Gilgal,(AG)
for there I began to hate them.
I will drive them from my house
because of their evil, wicked actions.(AH)
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.(AI)
16 Ephraim(AJ) is struck down;
their roots are withered;
they cannot bear fruit.(AK)
Even if they bear children,
I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.(AL)
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;(AM)
they will become wanderers among the nations.(AN)
Footnotes
- 9:10 = Baal
Cross references
- 9:1 : Is 22:12–13; Hs 10:5
- 9:1 : Hs 4:12
- 9:1 : Hs 7:14
- 9:2 : Hs 2:9
- 9:3 : Hs 7:16; 8:13
- 9:3 : Ezk 4:13
- 9:3 : Hs 11:7
- 9:4 : Nm 15:5,7,10
- 9:4 : Nm 19:11–14; Dt 26:12–14; Jr 16:5–7
- 9:5 : Is 10:3; Jr 5:31
- 9:5 : Hs 2:11; Jl 1:13
- 9:6 : Is 19:13; Jr 2:16; 44:1; 46:14,19; Ezk 30:13,16
- 9:6 : Is 5:6; 7:23; Hs 10:8
- 9:7 : Is 10:3; Jr 10:15; Mc 7:4
- 9:7 : Is 34:8; Jr 16:18; 25:14
- 9:7 : Lm 2:14
- 9:7 : Is 44:25
- 9:7 : Ezk 14:9–10
- 9:8 : Pr 29:5–6; Hs 5:1
- 9:9 : Is 31:6
- 9:9 : Jdg 19–21; Hs 5:8; 10:9
- 9:9 : Hs 7:2; 8:13
- 9:10 : Mc 7:1
- 9:10 : Jr 24:2
- 9:10 : Nm 25:1–9
- 9:10 : Jr 11:13; Hs 4:18
- 9:10 : Ezk 20:8
- 9:11 : Hs 4:7; 10:4
- 9:11 : Hs 4:10
- 9:12 : Hs 7:13
- 9:13 : Ezk 27:3–4
- 9:14 : Gn 49:25
- 9:15 : Hs 4:15; 12:11
- 9:15 : Hs 4:9; 7:2; 12:2
- 9:15 : Hs 5:2
- 9:16 : Hs 5:11
- 9:16 : Hs 8:7
- 9:16 : Ezk 24:21
- 9:17 : Hs 4:10
- 9:17 : Hs 7:13