Hosea 9
1 “Do not rejoice, O Israel, do not be joyful like the peoples, For you have gone whoring from your God, You have loved a wage near all floors of grain.
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.
2 Floor and winepress do not feed them, And new wine fails in her,
The threshing floor and the oil press will not feed them, and the wine will deceive them.
3 They do not abide in the land of YHWH, And Ephraim has turned back [to] Egypt, And they eat an unclean thing in Asshur.
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.
4 They do not pour out wine to YHWH, 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 does not come into the house of YHWH.
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.
5 What do you do at the day appointed? And at the day of YHWH’s festival?
What will you do on the solemn day, on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For behold, they have gone because of destruction, Egypt gathers them, Moph buries them, The desirable things of their silver, Nettles possess them—a thorn [is] in their tents.
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.
7 The days of inspection have come in, The days of repayment have come in, Israel knows! The prophet [is] a fool, Mad [is] the man of the spirit, Because of the abundance of your iniquity, And great [is] the hatred.
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.
8 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.
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.
9 They have gone deep—have done corruptly, As [in] the days of Gibeah, He remembers their iniquity, He inspects their sins.
They have sinned profoundly, just as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity, and he will repay their sin.
10 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 have gone in [to] Ba‘al-Peor, And are separated to a shameful thing, And have become abominable like their love.
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.
11 Ephraim [is] as a bird, their glory flies away, without birth, and without womb, and without conception.
Ephraim has chased away their glory like a bird: from birth, and from the womb, and from conception.
12 For though they nourish their sons, I have made them childless—without man, Surely also, woe to them when I turn aside from them.
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.
13 Ephraim! When I have looked to the rock, Is planted in comeliness, And Ephraim [is] to bring out his sons to a slayer.
Ephraim, as I see it, was a Tyre, founded by beauty. And Ephraim will lead his sons to execution.
14 Give to them, YHWH—what do You give? Give to them miscarrying womb, and dry breasts.
Give them, O Lord. What will you give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts.
15 All their evil [is] in Gilgal, Surely there I have hated them, Because of the evil of their doings, Out of My house I drive them, I no longer love them, All their heads [are] apostates.
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.
16 Ephraim has been struck, Their root has dried up, they do not yield fruit, Indeed, though they bring forth, I have put to death the desired of their womb.
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.
17 My God rejects them, Because they have not listened to Him, And they are wanderers among nations!”
My God will cast them aside because they have not listened to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.
