1Israel, don’t be joyful. Don’t be glad as the other nations are. You haven’t been faithful to your God. You love to get paid for being a prostitute. Your pay is the corn at every threshing-floor.2But soon there won’t be any corn or wine to feed you. There won’t even be any fresh wine.3You won’t remain in the LORD’s land. Ephraim, you will return to Egypt. You will eat ‘unclean’ food in Assyria.4You won’t pour out wine offerings to the LORD. Your sacrifices won’t please him. They’ll be like the bread people eat when someone dies. Everyone who eats those sacrifices will be ‘unclean’. They themselves will have to eat that kind of food. They can’t bring it into the LORD’s temple.5What will you do when your appointed feasts come? What will you do on the LORD’s special days?6Some of you will escape without being destroyed. But you will die in Egypt. Your bodies will be buried at Memphis. Weeds will cover your treasures of silver. Thorns will grow up in your tents.7The time when God will punish you is coming. The day when he will judge you is near. I want Israel to know this. You have committed many sins. And you hate me very much. That’s why you think the prophet is foolish. You think the person the LORD speaks through is crazy.8People of Ephraim, the prophet, along with my God, is warning you of danger. But you set traps for him everywhere he goes. You hate him so much you even wait for him in God’s house.9You have sunk very deep into sin, just as your people did at Gibeah long ago. God will remember the evil things they have done. He will punish them for their sins.10The LORD says, ‘When I first found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert. When I saw your people of long ago, it was like seeing the early fruit on a fig tree. But then they went to Baal Peor. There they gave themselves to that shameful god named Baal. They became as evil as the god they loved.11Ephraim’s greatness and glory will be gone. It will fly away like a bird. Women will no longer have children. They will not be able to get pregnant.12But suppose they do have children. Then I will kill every one of them. How terrible it will be for them when I turn away from them!13Tyre is planted in a pleasant place. And so is Ephraim. But the Assyrians will kill Ephraim’s children.’14LORD, what should you do to Ephraim’s people? Give them women whose babies die before they are born. Give them women whose breasts have no milk.15The LORD says, ‘My people did many evil things in Gilgal. That is why I hated them there. They committed many sins. So I will drive them out of my land. I will not love them anymore. All their leaders refuse to obey me.16Ephraim is like a worthless plant. Its roots are dried up. It does not produce any fruit. Suppose Ephraim’s people have children. Then I will kill the children they love so much.’17My God will turn his back on his people. They have not obeyed him. So they will wander among other nations.
Hosea 9
English Standard Version
The Lord Will Punish Israel
1Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute’s wages on all threshing floors. (Jer 44:17; Ho 1:2; Ho 2:5)2Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. (Ho 2:9)3They shall not remain in the land of the Lord, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. (Le 25:23; Jer 2:7; Jer 16:18; Eze 4:13; Da 1:8; Ho 8:13)4They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please him. It shall be like mourners’ bread to them; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the Lord. (De 26:14; Eze 24:17; Ho 3:4; Ho 8:13; Hag 2:13)5What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the Lord? (Isa 10:3)6For behold, they are going away from destruction; but Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents. (Isa 2:20; Ho 8:13; Ho 10:8)7The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. (Isa 10:3; Eze 13:3)8The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. (Ps 91:3; Eze 3:17; Ho 5:1)9They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins. (Jud 19:22; Ho 5:2; Ho 10:9)10Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. (Nu 25:3; Ps 80:8; Ps 106:28; Isa 5:1; Ho 4:14; Ro 1:28)11Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! (Isa 26:18; Ho 4:7; Ho 10:5)12Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! (1Sa 28:15; Eze 10:18; Ho 5:6; Ho 7:13; Ho 13:16)13Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm[1] planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.[2] (Eze 27:3; Ho 9:12)14Give them, O Lord— what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. (Lu 23:29)15Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. (Ho 4:15; Ho 5:2; Ho 8:4; Ho 12:11)16Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. (Ho 9:11; Ho 9:12)17My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations. (De 28:64; Ho 8:5)