Hosea 9

English Standard Version

The Lord Will Punish Israel

9 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.
²^(C)Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
    and ^(D)the new wine shall fail them.
³They 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.

⁴^(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.

⁵^(L)What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
    and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
⁶For 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.

⁷^(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.
⁸The 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.
⁹^(T)They have deeply corrupted themselves
    as ^(U)in the days of Gibeah:
^(V)he will remember their iniquity;
    he will punish their sins.

¹⁰Like 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.
¹¹Ephraim'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!
¹³Ephraim, ^(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]
¹⁴Give them, O Lord—
    what will you give?
Give them ^(AH)a miscarrying womb
    and dry breasts.

¹⁵Every 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.

¹⁶Ephraim 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.