Hosea 9
Christian Standard Bible
The Coming Exile
9 Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,(A)
for you have acted promiscuously,(B) leaving your God.
You love the wages of a prostitute
on every grain-threshing floor.(C)
2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,(D)
and the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not stay in the land of the Lord.
Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,(E)
and they will eat unclean food(F) in Assyria.(G)
4 They will not pour out
their wine offerings to the Lord,(H)
and their sacrifices will not please him.
Their food will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat it become defiled.(I)
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,(J)
on the day of the Lord’s feast?(K)
6 For even if they flee from devastation,
Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.(L)
Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;
thorns will invade their tents.(M)
7 The days of punishment have come;(N)
the days of retribution have come.(O)
Let Israel recognize it!
The prophet is a fool,(P)
and the inspired man is insane,(Q)
because of the magnitude
of your iniquity and hostility.(R)
8 Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.
Yet the prophet encounters a bird trap
on all his pathways.(S)
Hostility is in the house of his God!
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves(T)
as in the days of Gibeah.(U)
He will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.(V)
Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring
10 I discovered Israel
like grapes in the wilderness.(W)
I saw your ancestors
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.(X)
But they went to Baal-peor,(Y)
consecrated themselves to Shame,[a](Z)
and became abhorrent,(AA)
like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:(AB)
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.(AC)
12 Even if they raise children,
I will bereave them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!(AD)
13 I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,(AE)
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!(AF)
15 All their evil appears at Gilgal,(AG)
for there I began to hate them.
I will drive them from my house
because of their evil, wicked actions.(AH)
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.(AI)
16 Ephraim(AJ) is struck down;
their roots are withered;
they cannot bear fruit.(AK)
Even if they bear children,
I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.(AL)
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;(AM)
they will become wanderers among the nations.(AN)
Footnotes
- 9:10 = Baal
Hosea 9
New Living Translation
Hosea Announces Israel’s Punishment
9 O people of Israel,
do not rejoice as other nations do.
For you have been unfaithful to your God,
hiring yourselves out like prostitutes,
worshiping other gods on every threshing floor.
2 So now your harvests will be too small to feed you.
There will be no grapes for making new wine.
3 You may no longer stay here in the Lord’s land.
Instead, you will return to Egypt,
and in Assyria you will eat food
that is ceremonially unclean.
4 There you will make no offerings of wine to the Lord.
None of your sacrifices there will please him.
They will be unclean, like food touched by a person in mourning.
All who present such sacrifices will be defiled.
They may eat this food themselves,
but they may not offer it to the Lord.
5 What then will you do on festival days?
How will you observe the Lord’s festivals?
6 Even if you escape destruction from Assyria,
Egypt will conquer you, and Memphis[a] will bury you.
Nettles will take over your treasures of silver;
thistles will invade your ruined homes.
7 The time of Israel’s punishment has come;
the day of payment is here.
Soon Israel will know this all too well.
Because of your great sin and hostility,
you say, “The prophets are crazy
and the inspired men are fools!”
8 The prophet is a watchman over Israel[b] for my God,
yet traps are laid for him wherever he goes.
He faces hostility even in the house of God.
9 The things my people do are as depraved
as what they did in Gibeah long ago.
God will not forget.
He will surely punish them for their sins.
10 The Lord says, “O Israel, when I first found you,
it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert.
When I saw your ancestors,
it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season.
But then they deserted me for Baal-peor,
giving themselves to that shameful idol.
Soon they became vile,
as vile as the god they worshiped.
11 The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird,
for your children will not be born
or grow in the womb
or even be conceived.
12 Even if you do have children who grow up,
I will take them from you.
It will be a terrible day when I turn away
and leave you alone.
13 I have watched Israel become as beautiful as Tyre.
But now Israel will bring out her children for slaughter.”
14 O Lord, what should I request for your people?
I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth
and breasts that give no milk.
15 The Lord says, “All their wickedness began at Gilgal;
there I began to hate them.
I will drive them from my land
because of their evil actions.
I will love them no more
because all their leaders are rebels.
16 The people of Israel are struck down.
Their roots are dried up,
and they will bear no more fruit.
And if they give birth,
I will slaughter their beloved children.”
17 My God will reject the people of Israel
because they will not listen or obey.
They will be wanderers,
homeless among the nations.
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