Hosea 9

1 Do not choose to rejoice, Israel; do not celebrate as the crowds do. For you have been committing fornication against your God; you have loved a prize upon every threshing floor of wheat.

'Rejoice not, O Israel, be not joyful like the peoples, For thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God, Thou hast loved a gift near all floors of corn.

2 The threshing floor and the oil press will not feed them, and the wine will deceive them.

Floor and wine-press do not delight them, And new wine doth fail in her,

3 They will not dwell in the land of the Lord. Ephraim has been returned to Egypt, and he has eaten polluted things among the Assyrians.

They do not abide in the land of Jehovah, And turned back hath Ephraim [to] Egypt, And in Asshur an unclean thing they eat.

4 They will not offer a libation of wine to the Lord, and they will not please him. Their sacrifices will be like the bread of mourners. All those who eat it will be defiled. For their bread is of their soul; it will not enter into the house of the Lord.

They pour not out wine to Jehovah, Nor are they sweet to Him, Their sacrifices [are] as bread of mourners to them, All eating it are unclean: For their bread [is] for themselves, It doth not come into the house of Jehovah.

5 What will you do on the solemn day, on the day of the feast of the Lord?

What do ye at the day appointed? And at the day of Jehovah's festival?

6 For, behold, they have been sent away by devastation. Egypt will gather them together; Memphis will bury them. Nettles will inherit their desired silver; the burr will be in their tabernacles.

For, lo, they have gone because of destruction, Egypt gathereth them, Moph burieth them, The desirable things of their silver, Nettles possess them — a thorn [is] in their tents.

7 The days of visitation have arrived; the days of retribution are here. Know this, Israel: that the prophet was foolish, the spiritual man was mad, because of the multitude of your iniquities and the great extent of your foolishness.

Come in have the days of inspection, Come in have the days of recompence, Israel doth know! a fool [is] the prophet, Mad [is] the man of the Spirit, Because of the abundance of thine iniquity, And great [is] the hatred.

8 The watcher of Ephraim was with my God. The prophet has become a snare of ruin over all his ways; insanity is in the house of his God.

Ephraim is looking [away] from My God, The prophet! a snare of a fowler [is] over all his ways, Hatred [is] in the house of his God.

9 They have sinned profoundly, just as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity, and he will repay their sin.

They have gone deep — have done corruptly, As [in] the days of Gibeah, He doth remember their iniquity, He doth inspect their sins.

10 I discovered Israel like grapes in the desert. Like the first fruits of the fig tree, I saw their fathers on the end of its branches. But they went in to Baal-peor, and they have been estranged by intermingling, and they have become abominable, just like the things that they chose to love.

As grapes in a wilderness I found Israel, As the first-fruit in a fig-tree, at its beginning, I have seen your fathers, They — they have gone in [to] Baal-Peor, And are separated to a shameful thing, And are become abominable like their love.

11 Ephraim has chased away their glory like a bird: from birth, and from the womb, and from conception.

Ephraim [is] as a fowl, Fly away doth their honour, without birth, And without womb, and without conception.

12 And even if they should nurture their sons, I will make them without children among men. Yes, and woe to them, when I have withdrawn from them.

For though they nourish their sons, I have made them childless — without man, Surely also, woe to them, when I turn aside from them.

13 Ephraim, as I see it, was a Tyre, founded by beauty. And Ephraim will lead his sons to execution.

Ephraim! when I have looked to the rock, Is planted in comeliness, And Ephraim [is] to bring out unto a slayer his sons.

14 Give them, O Lord. What will you give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts.

Give to them, Jehovah — what dost Thou give? Give to them miscarrying womb, and dry breasts.

15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for I held them there, in their hatred. Because of the malice of their inventions, I will expel them from my house. I will no longer say that I love them; all their leaders have retreated.

All their evil [is] in Gilgal, Surely there I have hated them, Because of the evil of their doings, Out of My house I do drive them, I add not to love them, all their heads [are] apostates.

16 Ephraim has been struck; their root has been dried out: by no means will they yield fruit. And even if they should conceive, I will execute the most beloved of their womb.

Ephraim hath been smitten, Their root hath dried up, fruit they yield not, Yea, though they bring forth, I have put to death the desired of their womb.

17 My God will cast them aside because they have not listened to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.

Reject them doth my God, Because they have not hearkened to Him, And they are wanderers among nations!