Hosea 9
English Standard Version
The Lord Will Punish Israel
9 Rejoice not, O Israel!
Exult not like the peoples;
(A)for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
(B)You have loved a prostitute's wages
on all threshing floors.
2 (C)Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and (D)the new wine shall fail them.
3 They shall not remain in (E)the land of the Lord,
but (F)Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and (G)they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 (H)They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
(I)and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like (J)mourners' bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
(K)it shall not come to the house of the Lord.
5 (L)What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For behold, they are going away from destruction;
but (M)Egypt shall gather them;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess (N)their precious things of silver;
(O)thorns shall be in their tents.
7 (P)The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come;
Israel shall know it.
(Q)The prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
and great hatred.
8 The prophet is (R)the watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet (S)a fowler's snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
9 (T)They have deeply corrupted themselves
as (U)in the days of Gibeah:
(V)he will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.
10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
(W)I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But (X)they came to Baal-peor
and (Y)consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and (Z)became detestable like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim's (AA)glory shall fly away like a bird—
(AB)no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 (AC)Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
(AD)Woe to them
when (AE)I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, (AF)as I have seen, was like a young palm[a] planted in a meadow;
but (AG)Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.[b]
14 Give them, O Lord—
what will you give?
Give them (AH)a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15 Every evil of theirs is in (AI)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 (AJ)their princes are (AK)rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken;
(AL)their root is dried up;
they shall bear no fruit.
Even (AM)though they give birth,
(AN)I will put their beloved children to death.
17 (AO)My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
(AP)they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Footnotes
- Hosea 9:13 Or like Tyre
- Hosea 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters
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.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
