Hosea 9 HCSB

The Coming Exile

1 Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do, for you have acted promiscuously, leaving your God.You have loved the wages of a prostituteon 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 outtheir 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 recognize it!The prophet is a fool, and the inspired man is insane, because of the magnitudeof your guilt and hostility.

8 Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.The prophet encounters a fowler’s snareon all his ways. Hostility is in the house of his God!

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

Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring

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

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

12 Even if they raise 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 childrento the executioner.

14 Give them, Lord —What should You give?Give them a womb that miscarriesand breasts that are dry!

15 All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I came to hate them.I will drive them from My housebecause 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 thembecause they have not listened to Him; they will become wanderers among the nations.

Chapters

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