Hosea 9

New King James Version

³ They shall not dwell in ^(C)the Lord’s land,
^(D)But Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
And ^(E)shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
⁴ They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord,
Nor ^(F)shall their ^(G)sacrifices be pleasing to Him.
It shall be like bread of mourners to them;
All who eat it shall be defiled.
For their bread shall be for their own life;
It shall not come into the house of the Lord.

⁵ What will you do in the appointed day,
And in the day of the feast of the Lord?
⁶ For indeed they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt shall gather them up;
Memphis shall bury them.
^(H)Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver;
Thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷ The ^(I)days of punishment have come;
The days of recompense have come.
Israel knows!
The prophet is a ^(J)fool,
^(K)The spiritual man is insane,
Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
⁸ The ^(L)watchman of Ephraim is with my God;
But the prophet is a ^[a]fowler’s snare in all his ways—
Enmity in the house of his God.
^9 (M)They are deeply corrupted,
As in the days of ^(N)Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity;
He will punish their sins.

¹⁰ “I found Israel
Like grapes in the ^(O)wilderness;
I saw your fathers
As the ^(P)firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season.
But they went to ^(Q)Baal Peor,
And ^[b]separated themselves to that shame;
^(R)They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
¹¹ As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
¹² Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them to the last man.
Yes, ^(S)woe to them when I depart from them!
¹³ Just ^(T)as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place,
So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”

¹⁴ Give them, O Lord—
What will You give?
Give them ^(U)a miscarrying womb
And dry breasts!

¹⁵ “All their wickedness is in ^(V)Gilgal,
For there I hated them.
Because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them from My house;
I will love them no more.
^(W)All their princes are rebellious.
¹⁶ Ephraim is ^(X)stricken,
Their root is dried up;
They shall bear no fruit.
Yes, were they to bear children,
I would kill the darlings of their womb.”

¹⁷ My God will ^(Y)cast them away,
Because they did not obey Him;
And they shall be ^(Z)wanderers among the nations.