Hosea 9

New International Version

Punishment for Israel

9 Do not rejoice, Israel;
    do not be jubilant^(A) like the other nations.
For you have been unfaithful^(B) to your God;
    you love the wages of a prostitute^(C)
    at every threshing floor.
²Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
    the new wine^(D) will fail them.
³They will not remain^(E) in the Lord’s land;
    Ephraim will return to Egypt^(F)
    and eat unclean food in Assyria.^(G)
⁴They will not pour out wine offerings^(H) to the Lord,
    nor will their sacrifices please^(I) him.
Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;^(J)
    all who eat them will be unclean.^(K)
This food will be for themselves;
    it will not come into the temple of the Lord.^(L)

⁵What will you do^(M) on the day of your appointed festivals,^(N)
    on the feast days of the Lord?
⁶Even if they escape from destruction,
    Egypt will gather them,^(O)
    and Memphis^(P) will bury them.^(Q)
Their treasures of silver^(R) will be taken over by briers,
    and thorns^(S) will overrun their tents.
⁷The days of punishment^(T) are coming,
    the days of reckoning^(U) are at hand.
    Let Israel know this.
Because your sins^(V) are so many
    and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,^(W)
    the inspired person a maniac.^(X)
⁸The prophet, along with my God,
    is the watchman over Ephraim,^[a]
yet snares^(Y) await him on all his paths,
    and hostility in the house of his God.^(Z)
⁹They have sunk deep into corruption,^(AA)
    as in the days of Gibeah.^(AB)
God will remember^(AC) their wickedness
    and punish them for their sins.^(AD)

¹⁰“When I found Israel,
    it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
    it was like seeing the early fruit^(AE) on the fig^(AF) tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,^(AG)
    they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol^(AH)
    and became as vile as the thing they loved.
¹¹Ephraim’s glory^(AI) will fly away like a bird^(AJ)—
    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.^(AK)
¹²Even if they rear children,
    I will bereave^(AL) them of every one.
Woe^(AM) to them
    when I turn away from them!^(AN)
¹³I have seen Ephraim,^(AO) like Tyre,
    planted in a pleasant place.^(AP)
But Ephraim will bring out
    their children to the slayer.”^(AQ)

¹⁴Give them, Lord—
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.^(AR)

¹⁵“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,^(AS)
    I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,^(AT)
    I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;^(AU)
    all their leaders are rebellious.^(AV)
¹⁶Ephraim^(AW) is blighted,
    their root is withered,
    they yield no fruit.^(AX)
Even if they bear children,
    I will slay^(AY) their cherished offspring.”