The Lord Will Punish Israel

Rejoice not, O Israel!
    Exult not like the peoples;
(A)for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
    (B)You have loved a prostitute's wages
    on all threshing floors.
(C)Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
    and (D)the new wine shall fail them.
They shall not remain in (E)the land of the Lord,
    but (F)Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
    and (G)they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

(H)They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
    (I)and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like (J)mourners' bread to them;
    all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
    (K)it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

(L)What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
    and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
For behold, they are going away from destruction;
    but (M)Egypt shall gather them;
    Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess (N)their precious things of silver;
    (O)thorns shall be in their tents.

(P)The days of punishment have come;
    the days of recompense have come;
    Israel shall know it.
(Q)The prophet is a fool;
    the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
    and great hatred.
The prophet is (R)the watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet (S)a fowler's snare is on all his ways,
    and hatred in the house of his God.
(T)They have deeply corrupted themselves
    as (U)in the days of Gibeah:
(V)he will remember their iniquity;
    he will punish their sins.

10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
    (W)I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
    in its first season,
    I saw your fathers.
But (X)they came to Baal-peor
    and (Y)consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
    and (Z)became detestable like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim's (AA)glory shall fly away like a bird—
    (AB)no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 (AC)Even if they bring up children,
    I will bereave them till none is left.
(AD)Woe to them
    when (AE)I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, (AF)as I have seen, was like a young palm[a] planted in a meadow;
    but (AG)Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.[b]
14 Give them, O Lord
    what will you give?
Give them (AH)a miscarrying womb
    and dry breasts.

15 Every evil of theirs is in (AI)Gilgal;
    there I began to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
    I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
    all (AJ)their princes are (AK)rebels.

16 Ephraim is stricken;
    (AL)their root is dried up;
    they shall bear no fruit.
Even (AM)though they give birth,
    (AN)I will put their beloved children to death.
17 (AO)My God will reject them
    because they have not listened to him;
    (AP)they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 9:13 Or like Tyre
  2. Hosea 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters

Israel, don’t rejoice.
    Don’t celebrate as other nations do.
        You have been unfaithful to your Elohim.
        You have sold sex on every threshing floor.[a]
There won’t be enough grain to feed people.
    There won’t be enough wine to go around.

The people of Ephraim won’t stay in Yahweh’s land.
    They will return to Egypt,
        and they will eat unclean[b] food in Assyria.
They won’t pour wine offerings to Yahweh,
    and their sacrifices won’t please him.
    Their sacrifices will be like the food that mourners eat.
        All who eat this food will be unclean.
    Their food will only satisfy their hunger.
        It will not be brought as an offering to Yahweh’s temple.

What will they do on the day of an appointed festival
    or on Yahweh’s festival days?
Even if they escape without being destroyed,
    Egypt will capture them
        and Memphis will bury them.
            Weeds will grow over their silver treasures.
            Thorns will grow over their tents.
The time for them to be punished will come.
    The time for them to pay for their sins will come.
    When this happens, Israel will know it.
    They think that prophets are fools
    and that spiritual people are crazy.
        They have sinned a lot, and they are very hostile.
Prophets are Elohim’s watchmen over Ephraim.
    Yet, traps are set on every prophet’s path,
        and people are hostile in the temple of their Elohim.
People have deeply corrupted themselves as they once did at Gibeah.
    Elohim will remember their wickedness
        and punish them because of their sins.

Israel Is Like Rotten Grapes or Rotten Figs

10 The Lord said, “When I found Israel,
    it was like finding grapes in the desert.
    When I saw your ancestors,
    it was like seeing the first figs of the harvest.
        But they went to Baal Peor and worshiped shameful idols.
            They became as disgusting as the things they worshiped.

11 “Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird.
    There will be no more pregnancies, births, or babies.
12 Even if they bring up children,
    I will take those children away before they grow up.
    Yes, how horrible it will be for them when I leave them.
13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place.
    But the people of Ephraim will bring out their children
        to be killed.”

14 Yahweh, give them what they deserve.
    Make the women miscarry,
        or else make them unable to nurse their babies.

15 “All Ephraim’s wickedness began in Gilgal; I hated the people there.
    I will force them out of my temple because of their wickedness,
        and I won’t love them anymore.
    All their officials are rebellious.

16 “The people of Ephraim are like sick plants.
    Their roots are dried up.
    They have no fruit.
        Even if they were to have children,
            I would kill their dear children.”

17 My Elohim will reject them
    because they refused to listen to him.
        They will wander among the nations.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 9:1 A threshing floor is an outdoor area where grain is separated from its husks.
  2. Hosea 9:3 “Unclean” refers to anything that Moses’ Teachings say is not presentable to God.