Hos 9 | AB | STEP | Rejoice not, O Israel, neither make merry, as other nations. For you have gone a-whoring from your God; you have loved gifts upon every threshing floor.

Hosea 9

1 Rejoice not, O Israel, neither make merry, as other nations. For you have gone a-whoring from your God; you have loved gifts upon every threshing floor. 2 The threshing floor and winepress knew them not, and the wine disappointed them. 3 They dwelt not in the Lord's land: Ephraim dwelt in Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things among the Assyrians. 4 They have not offered wine to the Lord, neither have their sacrifices been sweet to Him, but as the bread of mourning to them; all that eat them shall be defiled; for their bread for their soul shall not enter into the house of the Lord. 5 What will you do in the day of the general assembly, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? 6 Therefore, behold, they go forth from the trouble of Egypt, and Memphis shall receive them, and Machmas shall bury them. As for their silver, destruction shall inherit it; thorns shall be in their tents. 7 The days of vengeance have come, the days of your recompense have come; and Israel shall be afflicted as the prophet that is mad, as a man deranged. By reason of the multitude of your iniquities your madness has abounded. 8 The watchman of Ephraim was with God. The prophet is a crooked snare in all his ways: they have established madness in the house of God. 9 They have corrupted themselves according to the days of the hill. He will remember their iniquities, He will take vengeance on their sins. 10 I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness, and I saw their fathers as an early watchman in a fig tree. They went in to Baal Peor, and were shamefully estranged, and the abominable became as the beloved. 11 Ephraim has flown away as a bird; their glories from the birth, and the travail, and the conception. 12 For even if they should rear their children, yet shall they be utterly bereaved. Wherefore also there is woe to them, though My flesh is of them. 13 Ephraim, even as I saw, gave their children for a prey; yes, Ephraim was ready to bring out his children to slaughter. 14 Give them, O Lord: what will you give them? A miscarrying womb, and dry breasts. 15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal. For there I hated them; because of the wickedness of their practices, I will cast them out of My house, I will not love them anymore; all their princes are disobedient. 16 Ephraim is sick, he is dried up at his roots, he shall by no means bear fruit any longer. For even if they should beget children, I will kill the desired fruit of their womb. 17 God shall reject them, because they have not hearkened to Him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations.