Hosea 9 (New American Standard Bible)

Hosea 9

Ephraim Punished

    ^1(A)Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations!
         For you have ^(B)played the harlot, forsaking your God.
         You have loved harlots' earnings on every threshing floor.
    ²Threshing floor and wine press will ^(C)not feed them,
         And the new wine will fail them.
    ³They will not remain in ^(D)the LORD'S land,
         But Ephraim will return to ^(E)Egypt,
         And in ^(F)Assyria they will eat ^(G)unclean food.
    ⁴They will not pour out drink offerings of ^(H)wine to the LORD,
         ^(I)Their sacrifices will not please Him
         Their bread will be like mourners' bread;
         All who eat of it will be ^(J)defiled,
         For their bread will be for themselves alone;
         It will not enter the house of the LORD.
    ^5(K)What will you do on the day of the appointed festival
         And on the day of the ^(L)feast of the LORD?
    ⁶For behold, they will go because of destruction;
         Egypt will gather them up, ^(M)Memphis will bury them
         Weeds will take over their treasures of silver;
         ^(N)Thorns will be in their tents.
    ⁷The days of ^(O)punishment have come,
         The days of ^(P)retribution have come;
         Let Israel know this!
         The prophet is a ^(Q)fool,
         The inspired man is ^(R)demented,
         Because of the grossness of your ^(S)iniquity,
         And because your hostility is so great.
    ⁸Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
         Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
         And there is only hostility in the house of his God.
    ⁹They have gone ^(T)deep in depravity
         As in the days of ^(U)Gibeah;
         He will ^(V)remember their iniquity,
         He will punish their sins.
    ¹⁰I found Israel like ^(W)grapes in the wilderness;
         I saw your forefathers as the ^(X)earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season
         But they came to ^(Y)Baal-peor and devoted themselves to ^[a](Z)shame,
         And they became as ^(AA)detestable as that which they loved.
    ¹¹As for Ephraim, their ^(AB)glory will fly away like a bird--
         No birth, no pregnancy and no conception!
    ¹²Though they bring up their children,
         Yet I will bereave them until not a man is left.
         Yes, ^(AC)woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
    ¹³Ephraim, as I have seen,
         Is planted in a pleasant meadow like ^(AD)Tyre;
         But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
    ¹⁴Give them, O LORD--what will You give?
         Give them a ^(AE)miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
    ¹⁵All their evil is at ^(AF)Gilgal;
         Indeed, I came to hate them there!
         Because of the ^(AG)wickedness of their deeds
         I will drive them out of My house!
         I will love them no more;
         All their princes are ^(AH)rebels.
    ^16(AI)Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
         They will bear ^(AJ)no fruit
         Even though they bear children,
         I will slay the ^(AK)precious ones of their womb.
    ¹⁷My God will cast them away
         Because they have ^(AL)not listened to Him;
         And they will be ^(AM)wanderers among the nations.