Hosea - 9

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1 D o not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, For you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

2 T he threshing floor and the winepress Shall not feed them, And the new wine shall fail in her.

3 T hey shall not dwell in the Lord ’s land, But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, And shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

4 T hey shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, Nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them; All who eat it shall be defiled. For their bread shall be for their own life; It shall not come into the house of the Lord.

5 W hat will you do in the appointed day, And in the day of the feast of the Lord ?

6 F or indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver; Thorns shall be in their tents.

7 T he days of punishment have come; The days of recompense have come. Israel knows! The prophet is a fool, The spiritual man is insane, Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.

8 T he watchman of Ephraim is with my God; But the prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways— Enmity in the house of his God.

9 T hey are deeply corrupted, As in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins.

10 I found Israel Like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor, And separated themselves to that shame; They became an abomination like the thing they loved.

11 A s for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird— No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!

12 T hough they bring up their children, Yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!

13 J ust as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place, So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”

14 G ive them, O Lord — What will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb And dry breasts!

15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal, For there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them from My house; I will love them no more. All their princes are rebellious.

16 E phraim is stricken, Their root is dried up; They shall bear no fruit. Yes, were they to bear children, I would kill the darlings of their womb.”

17 M y God will cast them away, Because they did not obey Him; And they shall be wanderers among the nations.