< Hosea 9 >
1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as [other] people: for thou hast apostatized from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every corn-floor.
2 The floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
3 They shall not dwell in the LORD'S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean [things] in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine -[offerings] to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing to him: their sacrifices [shall be] to them as the bread of mourners; all that eat of it shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.
5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
6 For lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant [places] for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns [shall be] in their tabernacles.
7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know [it]: the prophet [is] a fool, the spiritual man [is] mad, for the multitude of thy iniquity, and the great hatred.
8 The watchman of Ephraim [was] with my God: [but] the prophet [is] a snare of a fowler in all his ways, [and] hatred in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted [themselves], as in the days of Gibeah: [therefore] he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her first time: [but] they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves to [that] shame; and [their] abominations were according as they loved.
11 [As for] Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, [that there shall] not [be] a man [left]: yes, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, [is] planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
14 Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness [is] in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more: all their princes [are] revolters.
16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yes, though they bring forth, yet will I slay [even] the beloved [fruit] of their womb.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken to him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.