The Book of the Prophet Hosea 9 The Sin of Israel and its Consequence

 The Book of the Prophet Hosea 9

The Sin of Israel and its Consequence

1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, until you leap like the nations; for you have gone from your God like a prostitute; you have loved wages on every threshing floor.

2 The threshing floor and the winepress will not sustain them; and the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not remain in the land of the Lord; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat unclean food.

4 They will not pour out wine before the Lord, nor will their offerings be pleasing to him: Their sacrifices will be like bread for silversmiths; all who eat of it will be unclean, for their bread will be for their appetite; it will not enter the house of the Lord.

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

6 For, behold, they are gone because of destruction, but Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them: the desirable silver will be inherited by nettles; thorns will be in their dwellings.

7 The days of visitation have come, the days of retribution have come; Israel will know it: the prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is a madman; because of the abundance of your iniquity it will also abound.

8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, but the prophet is like a snare of a fowler in all his ways, an enemy in the house of his God.

9 They have become very deeply corrupt, as in the days of Gibeah; he will remember their iniquities, he will punish their sins.

10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe fruit of the fig tree in its beginning; But they went to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to that shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.

11 As for Ephraim, his glory will fly away like a bird; there will be no birth, no son, nor conception.

12 Even if they raise their children, I will deprive them of them, so that no male remains; for woe to them! When I depart from them.

13 Ephraim, like Tyre, is planted in a delightful place; but Ephraim will lead his children to the slaughterer.

14 Give them, O Lord; but what will you give them? Give them a womb that miscarries and dry breasts.

15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I abhorred them; because of the wickedness of their deeds I will cast them out of my house; I will no longer love them: all their princes are rebels.

16 Ephraim has been struck down, his root has dried up; they will not bear fruit; even if they bear children, I will kill the desirable fruit of their womb.

17 My God will reject them, because they do not listen to him, and they will wander among the nations.