Of the hunger and captivity of Israel.

Rejoice not, O Israel for joy [a]as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God: thou hast loved [b]a reward upon every corn floor.

[c]The floor, and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

They will not dwell in the Lord’s land, but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean things in Assyria.

They shall not offer [d]wine to the Lord, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasant unto him: but they shall be unto them as the bread of mourners: all that eat thereof, shall be polluted: for their bread [e]for their souls shall not come into the house of the Lord.

What will ye do [f]then in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?

For lo, they are gone from [g]destruction: but Egypt shall gather them up, and Memphis shall bury them: the nettle shall possess the pleasant places of their silver, and the thorn shall be in their tabernacles.

The days of visitation are come: the days of recompense are come: Israel shall know it: [h]the Prophet is a fool: the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity: therefore the hatred is great.

The watchman of Ephraim [i]should be with my God: but the Prophet is the snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

They [j]are deeply set: they are corrupt as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

10 I found Israel like [k]grapes in the wilderness: I saw your fathers as the first ripe 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 to [l]their lovers.

11 Ephraim their glory shall flee away like a bird: from the birth [m]and from the womb, and from the conception.

12 Though they bring up their children, yet I will deprive them from being men: yea, woe to them, when I depart from them.

13 Ephraim, as I saw, is as a tree [n]in Tyre planted in a cottage: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.

14 O Lord, give them: what wilt thou give them? give them a [o]barren womb and dry breasts.

15 All their wickedness is in [p]Gilgal: for there do I hate them: for the wickedness of their inventions, I will cast them out of mine House: I will love them no more: all their princes are rebels.

16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up: they can bring no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the dearest of their body.

17 My God will cast them away, because they did not obey him: and they shall wander among the nations.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 9:1 For though all other people should escape, yet thou shalt be punished.
  2. Hosea 9:1 Thou hast committed idolatry in hope of reward, and to have thy barns filled, Jer. 44:17, as an harlot that had rather live by playing the whore, than to be entertained of her own husband.
  3. Hosea 9:2 These outward things that thou seekest, shall be taken from thee.
  4. Hosea 9:4 All their doings both touching policy and religion, shall be rejected as things polluted.
  5. Hosea 9:4 The meat offering which they offered for themselves.
  6. Hosea 9:5 When the Lord shall take away all the occasions of serving him, which shall be the most grievous point of your captivity, when ye shall see yourselves cut off from God.
  7. Hosea 9:6 Though they think to escape by fleeing the destruction that is at hand, yet shall they be destroyed in the place whither they flee for succor.
  8. Hosea 9:7 Then they shall know that they were deluded by them, who challenged to themselves to be their prophets and spiritual men.
  9. Hosea 9:8 The Prophet’s duty is to bring men to God, and not to be a snare to pull them from God.
  10. Hosea 9:9 This people is so rooted in their wickedness, that Gibeah which was like to Sodom, was never more corrupt, Judg. 19:22.
  11. Hosea 9:10 Meaning, that he so esteemed them and delighted in them.
  12. Hosea 9:10 They were as abominable unto me, as their lovers the idols.
  13. Hosea 9:11 Signifying, that God would destroy their children by these sundry means, and so consume them by little and little.
  14. Hosea 9:13 As they kept tender plants in their houses in Tyre to preserve them from the cold air of the sea, so was Ephraim at the first unto me, but now I will give him to the slaughter.
  15. Hosea 9:14 The Prophet seeing the great plagues of God toward Ephraim, prayeth to God to make them barren, rather than that this great slaughter should come upon their children.
  16. Hosea 9:15 The chief cause of their destruction is that they commit idolatry, and corrupt my Religion in Gilgal.

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