Hosea 9
1 Do not rejoice, Israel, with joy like the other peoples. For you have been unfaithful, forsaking your God. You love to pay the wages a prostitute requires on all the threshing floors.
“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 the threshing floor and the winepress will not feed them; the new wine will fail them.
Floor and winepress do not feed them, And new wine fails in her,
3 They will not continue to live in Yahweh's land; instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt, and one day they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
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 They will pour out no wine offerings to Yahweh, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like mourners' food: all who eat it will be defiled. For their food will be for themselves only; it will not come into the house of Yahweh.
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 What will you do on the day of an appointed festival, on the day of a festival for Yahweh?
What do you do at the day appointed? And at the day of YHWH’s festival?
6 For, look, if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. As for their treasures of silver— sharp briers will possess them, and thorns will fill their tents.
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 The days for punishment are coming; the days for retribution are coming. Let all Israel know these things. The prophet is a fool, and the inspired man is insane, because of your great iniquity and great hostility.
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 The prophet is the watchman for my God over Ephraim. But a bird snare is on all of his paths, and hostility toward him 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 deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. God will call to mind their iniquity, and he will punish their 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 found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. Like the very first fruit of the season on the fig tree, I found your fathers. But they went to Baal Peor, and they devoted themselves to that shameful idol. They became as detestable as the idol 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 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
Ephraim [is] as a bird, their glory flies away, without birth, and without womb, and without conception.
12 Though they have brought up children, I will take them away so that none of them is left. Woe to them when I turn away 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 I have seen Ephraim, just like Tyre, planted in a meadow, but Ephraim will bring out his children to someone who will slaughter them.”
Ephraim! When I have looked to the rock, Is planted in comeliness, And Ephraim [is] to bring out his sons to a slayer.
14 Give them, Yahweh—what will you give them? Give them a miscarrying womb and breasts that give no milk.
Give to them, YHWH—what do You give? Give to them miscarrying womb, and dry breasts.
15 “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, that is where I began to hate them. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their officials are rebels.
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 Ephraim is diseased, and their root is dried up; they bear no fruit. Even if they have children, I will put their beloved children to death.”
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 My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him. They will become wanderers among the nations.
My God rejects them, Because they have not listened to Him, And they are wanderers among nations!”
