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Hosea 9
New International Reader's Version
Hosea 9
New International Reader's Version
Israel Will Be Punished
9 Israel, don’t be joyful.
Don’t be glad as the other nations are.
You haven’t been faithful to your God.
You love to get paid for being a prostitute.
Your pay is the grain at every threshing floor.
2 But soon there won’t be any grain or wine to feed you.
There won’t even be any fresh wine.
3 You won’t remain in the Lord’s land.
Ephraim, you will return to Egypt.
You will eat “unclean” food in Assyria.
4 You won’t pour out wine offerings to the Lord.
Your sacrifices won’t please him.
They’ll be like the bread people eat when someone dies.
Everyone who eats those sacrifices will be “unclean.”
They themselves will have to eat that kind of food.
They can’t bring it into the Lord’s temple.
5 What will you do when your appointed feasts come?
What will you do on the Lord’s special days?
6 Some of you will escape without being destroyed.
But you will die in Egypt.
Your bodies will be buried at Memphis.
Weeds will cover your treasures of silver.
Thorns will grow up in your tents.
7 The time when God will punish you is coming.
The day when he will judge you is near.
I want Israel to know this.
You have committed many sins.
And you hate me very much.
That’s why you think the prophet is foolish.
You think the person the Lord speaks through is crazy.
8 People of Ephraim, the prophet, along with my God,
is warning you of danger.
But you set traps for him everywhere he goes.
You hate him so much
you even wait for him in God’s house.
9 You have sunk very deep into sin,
just as your people did at Gibeah long ago.
God will remember the evil things they have done.
He will punish them for their sins.
10 The Lord says,
“When I first found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert.
When I saw your people of long ago,
it was like seeing the early fruit on a fig tree.
But then they went to Baal Peor.
There they gave themselves to that shameful god named Baal.
They became as evil as the god they loved.
11 Ephraim’s greatness and glory will be gone.
It will fly away like a bird.
Women will no longer have children.
They will not be able to get pregnant.
12 But suppose they do have children.
Then I will kill every one of them.
How terrible it will be for them
when I turn away from them!
13 Tyre is planted in a pleasant place.
And so is Ephraim.
But the Assyrians will kill
Ephraim’s children.”
14 Lord, what should you do to Ephraim’s people?
Give them women whose babies die before they are born.
Give them women whose breasts have no milk.
15 The Lord says,
“My people did many evil things in Gilgal.
That is why I hated them there.
They committed many sins.
So I will drive them out of my land.
I will not love them anymore.
All their leaders refuse to obey me.
16 Ephraim is like a worthless plant.
Its roots are dried up.
It does not produce any fruit.
Suppose Ephraim’s people have children.
Then I will kill the children they love so much.”
17 My God will turn his back on his people.
They have not obeyed him.
So they will wander among other nations.
Hosea 9
New International Version
Hosea 9
New International Version
Punishment for Israel
9 Do not rejoice, Israel;
do not be jubilant(A) like the other nations.
For you have been unfaithful(B) to your God;
you love the wages of a prostitute(C)
at every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
the new wine(D) will fail them.
3 They will not remain(E) in the Lord’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt(F)
and eat unclean food in Assyria.(G)
4 They will not pour out wine offerings(H) to the Lord,
nor will their sacrifices please(I) him.
Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;(J)
all who eat them will be unclean.(K)
This food will be for themselves;
it will not come into the temple of the Lord.(L)
5 What will you do(M) on the day of your appointed festivals,(N)
on the feast days of the Lord?
6 Even if they escape from destruction,
Egypt will gather them,(O)
and Memphis(P) will bury them.(Q)
Their treasures of silver(R) will be taken over by briers,
and thorns(S) will overrun their tents.
7 The days of punishment(T) are coming,
the days of reckoning(U) are at hand.
Let Israel know this.
Because your sins(V) are so many
and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,(W)
the inspired person a maniac.(X)
8 The prophet, along with my God,
is the watchman over Ephraim,[a]
yet snares(Y) await him on all his paths,
and hostility in the house of his God.(Z)
9 They have sunk deep into corruption,(AA)
as in the days of Gibeah.(AB)
God will remember(AC) their wickedness
and punish them for their sins.(AD)
10 “When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
it was like seeing the early fruit(AE) on the fig(AF) tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,(AG)
they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol(AH)
and became as vile as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory(AI) will fly away like a bird(AJ)—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.(AK)
12 Even if they rear children,
I will bereave(AL) them of every one.
Woe(AM) to them
when I turn away from them!(AN)
13 I have seen Ephraim,(AO) like Tyre,
planted in a pleasant place.(AP)
But Ephraim will bring out
their children to the slayer.”(AQ)
14 Give them, Lord—
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.(AR)
15 “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,(AS)
I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,(AT)
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;(AU)
all their leaders are rebellious.(AV)
16 Ephraim(AW) is blighted,
their root is withered,
they yield no fruit.(AX)
Even if they bear children,
I will slay(AY) their cherished offspring.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 9:8 Or The prophet is the watchman over Ephraim, / the people of my God
New International Reader's Version (NIRV) 
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New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.