Hosea 9

¹Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast played the harlot, departing from thy God; thou hast loved hire upon every grain-floor. ²The threshing-floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her. ³They shall not dwell in Jehovah’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. ⁴They shall not pour out wine-offerings to Jehovah, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted; for their bread shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah. ⁵What will ye do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Jehovah? ⁶For, lo, they are gone away from destruction; yet Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents. ⁷The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great. ⁸Ephraim was a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a fowler’s snare is in all his ways, and enmity in the house of his God. ⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season: but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved. ¹¹As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception. ¹²Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, so that not a man shall be left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them! ¹³Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slayer. ¹⁴Give them, O Jehovah—what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. ¹⁵All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters. ¹⁶Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb. ¹⁷My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.