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, with exultation, like the peoples, for thou hast gone away unchastely from beside thy God, —thou hast loved a present, upon all the threshing-floors of corn!
2 [But soon] there will not be enough grain [MTY, PRS] and wine [MTY, PRS] for you.
Threshing-floor and wine-vat, will not feed them, and, new wine, will deny 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 shall not dwell in the land of Yahweh, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and, in Assyria—that which is unclean, shall they eat.
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 shall not pour out to Yahweh—wine, neither shall they be pleasing to him, their sacrifices, are as the food of mourning to them, all that eat thereof, shall defile themselves, because, their food for their appetite, entereth not into the house of Yahweh.
5 At that time you will not [RHQ] be able to celebrate the feasts and sacred festivals.
What will ye do, for the day of appointed meeting? and in the day of the festival of Yahweh?
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, though they have gone from destruction, yet, Egypt, shall gather them, Memphis, shall bury them, —as for their silver favorites! thistles, shall possess them, thorns 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.
Come are the days of visitation, come are the days of recompense, Let Israel know! The prophet is foolish, the man of the spirit doth rave, because of the greatness of thine iniquity, therefore great is the prosecution.
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 watchman of Ephraim, [should have been] with my God: As for the prophet, the snare of the fowler, is on all his ways, a prosecution [awaiteth him], 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 deeply corrupted themselves, like the days of Gibeah: he will call to mind their iniquity, he will punish 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.
Like grapes in the desert, found I Israel, like the first-ripe in the fig-tree when it is young, saw I your fathers, —they, entered Baal-peor, and devoted themselves to the Shameful Thing, Then became their abominations like their lusts.
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.
As for Ephraim! like a bird, did their glory, fly away, —no birth, and none with child, no 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!
Yea, though they rear their children, yet will I make them childless, till there be no human being, —for it is, nothing less than woe, to them when I depart 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! just as I provided for Tyre, was planted in a meadow, —yet, Ephraim, must needs bring forth for a murderer his children.
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 Yahweh—what wilt thou give? Give them, a miscarrying womb, and breasts dried up.
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, yea, there, have I come to hate them, For the wickedness of their doings—out of my house, will I drive them forth, —no more will I love them, all their rulers, are unruly.
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.
Smitten is Ephraim, their root, hath dried up, fruit, shall they not bear, —yea, though they do bring forth, yet will I slay the darlings 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 reject them, because they hearkened not unto him, —that they may become wanderers throughout the nations.
