Hosea 9  Lexham English Bible

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.