Hosea 9

1 [You people of] Israel, do not shout joyfully [during your festivals] like [people of other] nations do! [I say that] because you have (not been faithful to/abandoned) me, your God. At every place where the people thresh grain you have [presented gifts to your idols like men] pay money to prostitutes.

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 [But soon] there will not be enough grain [MTY, PRS] and wine [MTY, PRS] for you.

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

3 And you people will not remain in the land that I, Yahweh, [gave to your ancestors]. You will be [captured and] taken to [Assyria], [where you will become slaves like your ancestors were] in Egypt; and in Assyria you will be forced to eat food that Yahweh has forbidden you to eat.

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 You Israelis will not [be able to] give wine offerings to him, or bring sacrifices to him. None of your other sacrifices will please him; they will be unacceptable to him, like [SIM] food that is touched by people at funerals, and everyone who eats that food will become unacceptable to him. They will be permitted to eat that food themselves, but they will not [be permitted to] bring it into the temple.

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 At that time you will not [RHQ] be able to celebrate the feasts and sacred festivals.

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

6 And even if you escape and are not killed [by the Assyrians], you will be captured by [the army of] Egypt, and you will [die and] be buried in Memphis, [the capital of Egypt]. Briers will [grow up and] cover your treasures of silver, and thorns will grow in your [ruined] tents/houses.

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 It is now the time for Yahweh to punish you, to pay you back for all the sins that you have committed. You people will [soon] know that. You have [committed] very many sins, and you very much hate Yahweh. You consider that the prophets are foolish, and you think that those who proclaim messages from him are crazy.

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 My God appointed [me and the other] prophets to be [like] [MET] watchmen [to warn] you people of Israel, but everywhere that we go, [it is as though] people set traps for us and people are hostile [to us, even] in the temple of our 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 The sins that the Israeli people have committed are as awful as [what the men of] Gibeah did long ago; [so] God will not forget the wicked things that they have done; he will punish the Israelis for [all] those sins.

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

10 [Yahweh says], “When I first started [to do things to help] Israel, it seemed to me as though [SIM] I had found grapes in the desert. Your ancestors were [delightful], like [SIM] the first figs that grow on fig trees [each year]. But when they came to Peor [Mountain], they worshiped that disgusting idol Baal, and they became as disgusting as the idol that they loved.

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 The things that cause Israel to be great will disappear like [SIM] a bird that flies away; [most of their women will] not become pregnant [DOU] or give birth to children.

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

12 Even if their children are born and start to grow up, I will cause all of them to die [while they are still young]. Terrible things will happen to them when I abandon 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 I have seen Israel become beautiful and prosperous like Tyre [city] was [before it was destroyed], but now the people of Israel will [be forced to] take their children to be slaughtered [by their enemies].”

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

14 Yahweh, [I do not know] [RHQ] what I should ask for my people. So I ask that you do this one thing: Cause the women who are pregnant to have miscarriages and unable [to nurse their babies].

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

15 [Yahweh says], “Because of all the wicked things that my people did at Gilgal, that is where I started to hate them. [And now], because of [all] the sinful things that they have done, I will expel them from my country. I will not love them any longer; all their leaders rebel [against me].

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 Israel is like [MET] a grapevine that is dried up; [like a vine] [MET] whose roots are withered and that produces no fruit. Even if the [women of Israel] give birth to [more] children, I will cause those children, whom they love, to die.

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 The people of Israel have not obeyed me, their God, so I will reject them. [As a result], they will wander among the [other] nations, [searching for a place to live].”

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