Hosea 9:11-17

The Voice

¹¹     Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:
        no offspring, no gestation, no conception!
¹²     And even if they do have children,
        I’ll take every single one of them away.
        It will be sorrowful for them when I abandon them!
¹³     There was a time when I saw Ephraim like Tyre,
        a pleasant palm planted in a lovely meadow,
    But now Ephraim must bring out her children to be slaughtered.^[a]

¹⁴ Give them, Eternal One—what should I ask You to give them?
    Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts!

¹⁵ Eternal One: In Gilgal My hatred grew for them
        because of all their evil that was there.
    I will force them out of My temple because of the depths of their wickedness.
        I won’t love them anymore; all of their leaders have rebelled against Me!

¹⁶     Ephraim has been cut down; their root has dried up,
        and they won’t bear any fruit.
    And even if they do bear children,
        I’ll kill those precious ones they carried.

¹⁷ My God will reject them because they haven’t listened to Him.
    They’ll be drifters and fugitives among the nations.