Hosea 9
New American Standard Bible
Ephraim Punished
9 (A)Do not rejoice, Israel, [a]with jubilation like the [b]nations!
For you have (B)been unfaithful, [c]abandoning your God.
You have loved the earnings of unfaithfulness on [d]every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floor and wine press will (C)not feed them,
And the new wine will fail [e]them.
3 They 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.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of (H)wine to the Lord,
(I)Nor will [f]their sacrifices please Him.
Their bread will be to them like [g]mourners’ bread;
All who eat it will be (J)defiled,
Because their bread will be for [h]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?
6 For behold, they will be gone because of destruction;
Egypt will gather them together, (M)Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will take possession of their treasures of silver;
(N)Thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of (O)punishment have come,
The days of (P)retribution have come;
[i]Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a (Q)fool,
The [j]inspired person is (R)insane,
Because of the grossness of your (S)wrongdoing,
And because your [k]hostility is so great.
8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
And there is only [l]hostility in the house of his God.
9 They are (T)deeply depraved
As in the days of (U)Gibeah;
He will (V)remember their guilt,
He will punish their sins.
10 I 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 [m](Z)shame,
And they became as (AA)detestable as that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their (AB)glory will fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them of their children [n]until not a person is left.
Yes, (AC)woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pasture like (AD)Tyre;
But Ephraim is going to bring out his children for slaughter.
14 Give to them, Lord—what will You give?
Give them a (AE)miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts.
15 All 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 no longer love them;
All their leaders are (AH)rebels.
16 (AI)Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will produce (AJ)no fruit.
Even though they give birth to children,
I will put to death the (AK)precious ones of their womb.
17 My God will reject them
Because they have (AL)not listened to Him;
And they will be (AM)wanderers among the nations.
Footnotes
- Hosea 9:1 Lit to
- Hosea 9:1 Lit peoples
- Hosea 9:1 Lit away from your God
- Hosea 9:1 Lit all threshing floors of grain
- Hosea 9:2 Lit her
- Hosea 9:4 Or they offer to Him their
- Hosea 9:4 Lit bread of mourning
- Hosea 9:4 Lit their soul
- Hosea 9:7 Or Israel will know this
- Hosea 9:7 Lit man of the spirit
- Hosea 9:7 Or persecution
- Hosea 9:8 Or persecution
- Hosea 9:10 I.e., Baal
- Hosea 9:12 Lit without a person
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.
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
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.
