Hosea 9:1-13 ▼

1 Rejoice not, O Israel, unto exultation, like the peoples, For thou hast gone astray from thy God, Thou hast loved a harlot's hire upon every corn-floor.

2 The threshing-floor and the wine-press shall not feed them, And the new wine shall fail her.

3 They shall not dwell in the LORD'S land; But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, And they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

4 They shall not pour out wine-offerings to the LORD, Neither shall they be pleasing unto Him; Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners, All that eat thereof shall be polluted; For their bread shall be for their appetite, It shall not come into the house of the LORD.

5 What will ye do in the day of the appointed season, And in the day of the feast of the LORD?

6 For, lo, they are gone away from destruction, Yet Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; Their precious treasures of silver, nettles shall possess them, Thorns shall be in their tents.

7 The days of visitation are come, The days of recompense are come, Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad! For the multitude of thine iniquity, the enmity is great.

8 Ephraim is a watchman with my God; As for the prophet, a fowler's snare is in all his ways, And enmity 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.

10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at her first season; But so soon as they came to Baal-peor, They separated themselves unto the shameful thing, And became detestable like that which they loved.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird; There shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.

12 Yea, though they bring up their children, Yet will I bereave them, that there be not a man left; Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

13 Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place; But Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the slayer.