Hosea 9
Living Bible
9 O Israel, rejoice no more as others do, for you have deserted your God and sacrificed to other gods on every threshing floor.
2 Therefore your harvests will be small; your grapes will blight upon the vine.
3 You may no longer stay here in this land of God; you will be carried off to Egypt and Assyria and live there on scraps of food. 4 There, far from home, you are not allowed to pour out wine for sacrifice to God. For no sacrifice that is offered there can please him; it is polluted, just as food of mourners is; all who eat such sacrifices are defiled. They may eat this food to feed themselves, but may not offer it to God. 5 What then will you do on holy days, on days of feasting to the Lord, 6 when you are carried off to Assyria as slaves? Who will inherit your possessions left behind? Egypt will! She will gather your dead; Memphis will bury them. And thorns and thistles will grow up among the ruins.
7 The time of Israel’s punishment has come; the day of recompense is almost here, and soon Israel will know it all too well. “The prophets are crazy”; “The inspired men are mad.” Yes, so they mock, for the nation is weighted with sin and shows only hatred for those who love God.
8 “I appointed the prophets to guard my people, but the people have blocked them at every turn and publicly declared their hatred, even in the Temple of the Lord. 9 The things my people do are as depraved as what they did in Gibeah[a] long ago. The Lord does not forget. He will surely punish them.
10 “O Israel, how well I remember those first delightful days when I led you through the wilderness! How refreshing was your love! How satisfying, like the early figs of summer in their first season! But then you deserted me for Baal-peor,[b] to give yourselves to other gods, and soon you were as foul as they. 11 The glory of Israel flies away like a bird, for your children will die at birth, or perish in the womb, or never even be conceived. 12 And if your children grow, I will take them from you; all are doomed. Yes, it will be a sad day when I turn away and leave you alone.”
13 In my vision I have seen the sons of Israel doomed. The fathers are forced to lead their sons to slaughter. 14 O Lord, what shall I ask for your people? I will ask for wombs that don’t give birth, for breasts that cannot nourish.
15 “All their wickedness began at Gilgal;[c] there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their idolatry. I will love them no more, for all their leaders are rebels. 16 Ephraim is doomed. The roots of Israel are dried up; she shall bear no more fruit. And if she gives birth, I will slay even her beloved child.”
17 My God will destroy the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey. They will be wandering Jews, homeless among the nations.
Footnotes
- Hosea 9:9 what they did in Gibeah, see Judges 19:14ff.
- Hosea 9:10 But then you deserted me for Baal-peor, the god of Peor, a city of Moab (Numbers 23).
- Hosea 9:15 Gilgal, the town where Baal-worship flourished (4:15; 12:11), and where the monarchy, hated of God, was instituted (1 Samuel 11:15).
Hosea 9
King James Version
9 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.
2 The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
3 They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.
5 What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.
7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.
14 Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.
16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.