Hosea

Hosea, chapter 9, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 9 New English Translation

Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel

   1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations, for you are unfaithful to your God. You love to receive a prostitute's wages on all the floors where you thresh your grain.
   2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed the people, and new wine only deceives them.

Assyrian Exile Will Reverse the Egyptian Exodus

   3 They will not remain in the LORD's land. Ephraim will return to Egypt; they will eat ritually unclean food in Assyria.
   4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD; they will not please him with their sacrifices. Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning; all those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean. For their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite; it will not come into the temple of the LORD.
   5 So what will you do on the festival day, on the festival days of the LORD?

No Escape for the Israelites This Time!

   6 Look! Even if they flee from the destruction, Egypt will take hold of them, and Memphis will bury them. The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure - thorn bushes will occupy their homes.

Israel Rejects Hosea's Prophetic Exhortations

   7 The time of judgment is about to arrive! The time of retribution is imminent! Let Israel know! The prophet is considered a fool - the inspired man is viewed as a madman - because of the multitude of your sins and your intense animosity.
   8 The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim on behalf of God, yet traps are laid for him along all of his paths; animosity rages against him in the land of his God.

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

   9 They have sunk deep into corruption as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their wrongdoing. He will repay them for their sins.
   10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame - they became as detestable as what they loved.

The Fertility Worshipers Will Become Infertile

   11 Ephraim will be like a bird; what they value will fly away. They will not bear children - they will not enjoy pregnancy - they will not even conceive!
   12 Even if they raise their children, I will take away every last one of them. Woe to them! For I will turn away from them.
   13 Just as lion cubs are born predators, so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.
   14 Give them, O LORD - what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry, and breasts that cannot nurse!
   15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal, I hate them there. On account of their evil deeds, I will drive them out of my land. I will no longer love them; all their rulers are rebels.
   16 Ephraim will be struck down - their root will be dried up; they will not yield any fruit. Even if they do bear children, I will kill their precious offspring.
   17 My God will reject them, for they have not obeyed him; so they will be fugitives among the nations.

King James Version

   1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
   2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
   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 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 for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.
   5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
   6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.
   7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
   8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
   9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
   10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.
   11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
   12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
   13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
   14 Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
   15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
   16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
   17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.