Hos 9 | LSB | STEP | Do not be glad, O Israel, with rejoicing like the peoples! For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. You have loved harlots’ earnings on every threshing floor.

Hosea 9

Days of Punishment Have Come

1 Do not be glad, O Israel, ^{▼▼Lit to}with rejoicing like the peoples!
For you have played the harlot, ^{▼▼Lit away from your God}forsaking your God.
You have loved harlots’ earnings on ^{▼▼Lit all threshing floors of grain}every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them,
And the new wine will deceive ^{▼▼Lit her}them.
3 They will not remain in the land of Yahweh,
But Ephraim will return to Egypt,
And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to Yahweh;
Their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their bread will ^{▼▼Lit be to them}be like ^{▼▼Or bread of misfortune}mourners’ bread;
All who eat of it will be defiled,
For their bread will be for ^{▼▼Lit their appetite}themselves alone;
It will not enter the house of Yahweh.
5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival
And on the day of the feast of Yahweh?
6 For behold, they will go because of destruction;
Egypt will gather them up; Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will possess their desirable items of silver;
Thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;
The days of recompense have come;
^{▼▼ Or Israel will know it}Let Israel know this!
The prophet is an ignorant fool,
The ^{▼▼Lit man of the spirit}inspired man has madness,
Because of the abundance of your iniquity
And because your hostility has abounded.
8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
And there is only hostility in the house of his God.
9 They have dug deep ^{▼▼Lit they have corrupted}in corruption
As in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their iniquity;
He will punish their sins.

Grapes in the Wilderness

10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your fathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.
But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to ^▼▼Baalshame,
And they became as detestable as that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them ^{▼▼Lit without a man}until not a man is left.
Surely, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pasture like Tyre;
But Ephraim will bring out his children for killing.
14 Give them, O Yahweh—what will You give?
Give them a ^{▼▼Lit bereaving}miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All their evil is at Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will love them no more;
All their princes are rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up;
They will bear no fruit.
Even though they bear children,
I will put to death the desirable ones of their womb.
17 My God will despise them
Because they have not listened to Him;
And they will be those who flee among the nations.