Hosea 9 - Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

The Coming Exile

¹ Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do, for you have acted promiscuously,  leaving your God. You love the wages of a prostitute on every grain threshing-floor.

² Threshing-floor and wine vat will not sustain them, and the new wine will fail them.

³ They will not stay in the land of the  Lord. Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food  in Assyria.

⁴ They will not pour out their wine offerings to the  Lord, and their sacrifices will not please him. Their food will be like the bread of mourners; all who eat it become defiled. For their bread will be for their appetites alone; it will not enter the house of the  Lord.

⁵ What will you do on a festival day, on the day of the  Lord’s feast?

⁶ For even if they flee from devastation, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Thistles will take possession of their precious silver; thorns will invade their tents.

⁷ The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have come. Let Israel recognise it! The prophet is a fool, and the inspired man is insane, because of the magnitude of your iniquity and hostility.

⁸ Ephraim’s watchman is with my God. Yet the prophet encounters a bird trap on all his pathways. Hostility is in the house of his God!

⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.

Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring

¹⁰ I discovered Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your ancestors like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, consecrated themselves to Shame,  , and became abhorrent, like the thing they loved.

¹¹ Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird: no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

¹² Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!

¹³ I have seen Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a meadow, so Ephraim will bring out his children to the executioner.

¹⁴ Give them, Lord  – What should you give? Give them a womb that miscarries and breasts that are dry!

¹⁵ All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my house because of their evil, wicked actions. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.

¹⁶ Ephraim  is struck down; their roots are withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.

¹⁷ My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they will become wanderers among the nations.