Hosea 9
International Standard Version
Punishment for Israel
9 “Don’t celebrate, Israel, like other nations would rejoice,
because you left your God by committing fornication,
loving the profit you gained on all of the threshing floors.
2 Neither threshing floor nor winepress will sustain them,
and the new wine will disappoint her.
3 They will not live in the Lord’s land—
Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They won’t present wine offerings to the Lord,
nor will they please him.
Their sacrifices will seem like food for mourners—
everyone who eats them will become unclean;
none of them will enter the Temple of the Lord.
5 “What will you do on the designated holiday,
when the Lord’s festival comes?
6 Look! They have gone away because of the destruction—
Egypt will gather them up,
and Memphis[a] will bury them.
Weeds will overgrow their inheritance,[b]
and thorns will grow[c] in their tents.
7 The time for your judgment has now come;
payday is here—
and Israel knows it.
The prophet is a fool,
and the spiritual man is insane.
Because of your great sin,
the hatred against you[d] is great.
8 While Ephraim stands watch with my God,
the prophet has snares set that will trap his ways,
and hostility lodges in the Temple of his God.
9 They have corrupted themselves deeply,
as did Gibeah[e] in its day.
Therefore God[f] will remember their lawlessness,
and he will pay them back for their sins.
10 “I found Israel,
as one finds[g] grapes in the wilderness;
Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit
gleaned from a fig tree’s first harvest.
When they went to Baal-peor,[h]
they devoted themselves to that filth,
and they became loathsome,
like what they loved.
11 The glory of Ephraim will fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, not even a conception.
12 Even if they rear their children,
I will, in turn, make them childless—
in fact, woe to them
when I turn away from them!
13 Ephraim, as I see it, is like Tyre,
planted in a comfortable place;
Ephraim will bear children
but they will be executed.”
14 Give them, Lord—
What will you give?
You will give them a womb that miscarries and dry breasts.
15 “All of their wickedness started[i] in Gilgal,
because I began to hate them there.
Because of the wickedness of their behavior,
I will drive them from my Temple.
I will not love them anymore;
all their leaders are rebels.
16 Ephraim is blighted;[j]
its roots shriveled.
It can bear no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will kill their cherished offspring.
17 “My God will reject them,
because they did not obey him,
and they will become wanderers among the nations.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 9:6 So LXX. Heb. Moph; i.e. the capital of Lower Egypt
- Hosea 9:6 Lit. their precious silver
- Hosea 9:6 Lit. be
- Hosea 9:7 The Heb. lacks against you
- Hosea 9:9 Cf. Judg 19:1
- Hosea 9:9 Lit. he
- Hosea 9:10 The Heb. lacks finds
- Hosea 9:10 Cf. Num 25:1-3
- Hosea 9:15 The Heb. lacks started
- Hosea 9:16 Or stricken
Hosea 9
Lexham English Bible
Ephraim Faces Punishment
9 Do not rejoice, O Israel,
do not exult like the nations!
For you played the whore, departing from your God;
you loved a harlot’s wage
on all the threshing floors of grain.
2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not feed them,
and new wine will fail her.[a]
3 They will not remain
in the land of Yahweh.
But Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
4 They will not pour drink offerings of wine to Yahweh,
and their sacrifices will not please him.
They are like mourners’ bread for them;
all those who eat it will be defiled.
For their bread will be for their hunger;[b]
it will not come to the house of Yahweh.
5 What will you do on the day of the appointed time,
and on the day of the festival of Yahweh?
6 For look! If they flee from the destruction,
Egypt will gather them;
Memphis[c] will bury them.
Nettles will possess
their precious things of silver;
thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;
the days of retribution have come;
Israel knows!
The prophet is a fool,
the man of the spirit is acting like a madman.
Because of the greatness of your sin,
your hostility is great.
8 The prophet keeps watch over Ephraim for my God;
the snare of a fowler is on all his ways,
and hostility in the house of his God.
9 They deeply corrupted themselves[d]
as in the days of Gibeah;
he will remember their sin,
he will punish their sins.
10 Like the grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like early ripened fruit on the fig tree in the first season,[e]
I saw your ancestors.[f]
They themselves came to Baal Peor,
and they consecrated themselves to shame.
And they became detestable things,
like the thing they love.[g]
11 Ephraim’s glory is like a bird;
it will fly away—
no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
12 Even though they bring up their children,
I will bereave them before maturity.[h]
Woe to them indeed,
when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I see it,
is like a palm in a meadow;
but Ephraim must bring out
his children to the slayer.
14 Give them, O Yahweh—
what will you give them?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15 Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal,
so I began to hate them there;
because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them out from my house.
I will love them no more;
all their officials are rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken,
their root is dried up,
they shall not bear fruit.
Even if they give birth,
I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.
17 My God will reject them
because they did not listen to him,
and they will be wanderers among the nations.
Footnotes
- Hosea 9:2 That is, Israel
- Hosea 9:4 Literally “for their soul”
- Hosea 9:6 Hebrew “Noph”
- Hosea 9:9 Literally “They made deep, they corrupted themselves”
- Hosea 9:10 Or “in the beginning”
- Hosea 9:10 Or “fathers”
- Hosea 9:10 Literally “like loving things”
- Hosea 9:12 Or “until no one is left”
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