< Hosea 9 >
1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy like the peoples, for thou have played the harlot, departing from thy God. Thou have loved hire upon every grain-floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.
3 They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They shall not pour out wine offerings to Jehovah, nor shall they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourners. All who eat of it shall be polluted, for their bread shall be for their appetite. It shall not come into the house of Jehovah.
5 What will ye do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Jehovah?
6 For, lo, they have gone away from destruction, yet Egypt shall gather them up. Memphis shall bury them. Their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them. Thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of visitation have come. The days of recompense have come. Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great.
8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God. As for the prophet, a fowler's snare is in all his ways, and enmity in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will visit their sins.
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season. But they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird. There shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.
12 Though they bring up their sons, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, just as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place, but Ephraim shall bring out his sons to the slayer.
14 Give them, O Jehovah-what will thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more. All their rulers are rebels.
16 Ephraim is smitten. Their root is dried up. They shall bear no fruit. Yea, though they bring forth, yet I will kill the beloved fruit of their womb.
17 My God will cast them away because they did not hearken to him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations.