Hosea 9

The Coming Exile

1 Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,  * 9:1 Is 22:12–13; Hs 10:5

for you have acted promiscuously,  * 9:1 Hs 4:12 leaving your God.

You love the wages of a prostitute

on every grain-threshing floor.  * 9:1 Hs 7:14

2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,  * 9:2 Hs 2:9

and the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not stay in the land of the  Lord.

Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,  * 9:3 Hs 7:16; 8:13

and they will eat unclean food  * 9:3 Ezk 4:13 in Assyria.  * 9:3 Hs 11:7

4 They will not pour out

their wine offerings to the  Lord,  * 9:4 Nm 15:5,7,10

and their sacrifices will not please him.

Their food will be like the bread of mourners;

all who eat it become defiled.  * 9:4 Nm 19:11–14; Dt 26:12–14; Jr 16:5–7

For their bread will be for their appetites alone;

it will not enter the house of the  Lord.

5 What will you do on a festival day,  * 9:5 Is 10:3; Jr 5:31

on the day of the  Lord’s feast?  * 9:5 Hs 2:11; Jl 1:13

6 For even if they flee from devastation,

Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.  * 9:6 Is 19:13; Jr 2:16; 44:1; 46:14,19; Ezk 30:13,16

Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;

thorns will invade their tents.  * 9:6 Is 5:6; 7:23; Hs 10:8

7 The days of punishment have come;  * 9:7 Is 10:3; Jr 10:15; Mc 7:4

the days of retribution have come.  * 9:7 Is 34:8; Jr 16:18; 25:14

Let Israel recognize it!

The prophet is a fool,  * 9:7 Lm 2:14

and the inspired man is insane,  * 9:7 Is 44:25

because of the magnitude

of your iniquity and hostility.  * 9:7 Ezk 14:9–10

8 Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.

Yet the prophet encounters a bird trap

on all his pathways.  * 9:8 Pr 29:5–6; Hs 5:1

Hostility is in the house of his God!

9 They have deeply corrupted themselves  * 9:9 Is 31:6

as in the days of Gibeah.  * 9:9 Jdg 19–21; Hs 5:8; 10:9

He will remember their iniquity;

he will punish their sins.  * 9:9 Hs 7:2; 8:13

Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring

10 I discovered Israel

like grapes in the wilderness.  * 9:10 Mc 7:1

I saw your ancestors

like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.  * 9:10 Jr 24:2

But they went to Baal-peor,  * 9:10 Nm 25:1–9

consecrated themselves to Shame,  * 9:10 = Baal,* 9:10 Jr 11:13; Hs 4:18

and became abhorrent,  * 9:10 Ezk 20:8

like the thing they loved.

11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:  * 9:11 Hs 4:7; 10:4

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.  * 9:11 Hs 4:10

12 Even if they raise children,

I will bereave them of each one.

Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!  * 9:12 Hs 7:13

13 I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,  * 9:13 Ezk 27:3–4

planted in a meadow,

so Ephraim will bring out his children

to the executioner.

14 Give them, Lord  —

What should you give?

Give them a womb that miscarries

and breasts that are dry!  * 9:14 Gn 49:25

15 All their evil appears at Gilgal,  * 9:15 Hs 4:15; 12:11

for there I began to hate them.

I will drive them from my house

because of their evil, wicked actions.  * 9:15 Hs 4:9; 7:2; 12:2

I will no longer love them;

all their leaders are rebellious.  * 9:15 Hs 5:2

16 Ephraim  * 9:16 Hs 5:11 is struck down;

their roots are withered;

they cannot bear fruit.  * 9:16 Hs 8:7

Even if they bear children,

I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.  * 9:16 Ezk 24:21

17 My God will reject them

because they have not listened to him;  * 9:17 Hs 4:10

they will become wanderers among the nations.  * 9:17 Hs 7:13