Punishment for Israel’s Sin
9 Rejoice not, O Israel!
Exult not[a] like the peoples;
for you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.
You have loved a harlot’s hire
upon all threshing floors.
2 Threshing floor and winevat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
3 They shall not remain in the land of the Lord;
but E′phraim shall return to Egypt,
and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They shall not pour libations of wine to the Lord;
and they shall not please him with their sacrifices.
Their bread[b] 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.
5 What will you do on the day of appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For behold, they are going to Assyria;[c]
Egypt shall gather them,
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;
thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The 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.
8 The prophet is the watchman of E′phraim,
the people of my God,
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gib′e-ah:
he will remember their iniquity,
he will punish their sins.
10 Like 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 Ba′al-pe′or,
and consecrated themselves to Ba′al,[d]
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
11 E′phraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
Woe to them
when I depart from them!
13 E′phraim’s sons, as I have seen, are destined for a prey;[e]
E′phraim must lead forth his sons to slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord—
what wilt thou give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15 Every 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.
16 E′phraim is stricken,
their root is dried up,
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they bring forth,
I will slay their beloved children.
17 My God will cast them off,
because they have not hearkened to him;
they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Footnotes
- Hosea 9:1 Gk: Heb to exultation
- Hosea 9:4 Cn: Heb to them
- Hosea 9:6 Cn: Heb from destruction
- Hosea 9:10 Heb shame
- Hosea 9:13 Cn Compare Gk: Heb uncertain