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 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.

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

Floor and winepress do not feed them, And new wine fails in her,

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

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 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.

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

What do you do at the day appointed? And at the day of YHWH’s festival?

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 gone deep—have done corruptly, As [in] the days of Gibeah, He remembers their iniquity, He inspects their sins.

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.

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.

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 [is] as a bird, their glory flies away, without birth, and without womb, and without 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!

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

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 to them, YHWH—what do You give? Give to them miscarrying womb, 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 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.

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 dried up, they do not yield fruit, Indeed, though they bring forth, I have put to death the desired 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 rejects them, Because they have not listened to Him, And they are wanderers among nations!”