Hosea 9:1-17 - Ephraim Faces Punishment

¹ Do not rejoice, 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. 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}; 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 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} 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, I saw your ancestors. They themselves came [to] Baal Peor, and they consecrated themselves to shame. And they became detestable things, like {the thing they love}. 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. 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, 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.