Hosea 9:1-13 ▼

1 REJOICE not, O Israel, leap not for joy, as others do; because you have gone astray from your God, you have loved gifts from every threshing floor.

2 But the threshing floor and the winepress shall not satisfy them, and the oil shall fail them.

3 They shall not dwell in the LORD'S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall their sacrifices please him; their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of affliction; all who eat of it shall be polluted; for their own bread shall not come into the house of the LORD.

5 What will you do on the solemn feast day, and on the day of the feast of the LORD?

6 For, lo, they are gone in the prey: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their valuable things of silver, strangers shall inherit them; thorns shall grow in their tents.

7 The days of vengeance have come, the days of recompense are near; then Israel shall know it; the prophet is a fool, a dull man possessed by a spirit of stupidity; because of the multitude of your iniquity, your lasciviousness has been increased.

8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; but the prophet is a snare and a stumbling block in all his ways, and wantonness in the house of God.

9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Ramtha; therefore he will remember their iniquity, and he will punish them for their sins.

10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw their fathers like the first fruit of the fig tree, but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves to that shameful thing, and became abominable like the things they loved.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory has flown away like a bird, they are cut off from the birth, from the womb, and from the conception.

12 Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, that there shall not be a man left; yea, woe to them, for I will take vengeance upon them!

13 Ephraim's fate shall be like that of Tyre, as you have seen, though planted in a pleasant place with buildings; likewise Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slaughter.