Hosea 9
9
The Coming Exile
1Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,#Is 22:12–13; Hs 10:5
for you have acted promiscuously,#Hs 4:12 leaving your God.
You love the wages of a prostitute
on every grain-threshing floor.#Hs 7:14
2Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,#Hs 2:9
and the new wine will fail them.
3They will not stay in the land of the Lord.
Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,#Hs 7:16; 8:13
and they will eat unclean food#Ezk 4:13 in Assyria.#Hs 11:7
4They will not pour out
their wine offerings to the Lord,#Nm 15:5,7,10
and their sacrifices will not please him.
Their food will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat it become defiled.#Nm 19:11–14; Dt 26:12–14; Jr 16:5–7
For their bread will be for their appetites alone;
it will not enter the house of the Lord.
5What will you do on a festival day,#Is 10:3; Jr 5:31
on the day of the Lord’s feast?#Hs 2:11; Jl 1:13
6For even if they flee from devastation,
Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.#Is 19:13; Jr 2:16; 44:1; 46:14,19; Ezk 30:13,16
Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;
thorns will invade their tents.#Is 5:6; 7:23; Hs 10:8
7The days of punishment have come;#Is 10:3; Jr 10:15; Mc 7:4
the days of retribution have come.#Is 34:8; Jr 16:18; 25:14
Let Israel recognize it!
The prophet is a fool,#Lm 2:14
and the inspired man is insane,#Is 44:25
because of the magnitude
of your iniquity and hostility.#Ezk 14:9–10
8Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.
Yet the prophet encounters a bird trap
on all his pathways.#Pr 29:5–6; Hs 5:1
Hostility is in the house of his God!
9They have deeply corrupted themselves#Is 31:6
as in the days of Gibeah.#Jdg 19–21; Hs 5:8; 10:9
He will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.#Hs 7:2; 8:13
Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring
10I discovered Israel
like grapes in the wilderness.#Mc 7:1
I saw your ancestors
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.#Jr 24:2
But they went to Baal-peor,#Nm 25:1–9
consecrated themselves to Shame,#9:10 = Baal#Jr 11:13; Hs 4:18
and became abhorrent,#Ezk 20:8
like the thing they loved.
11Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:#Hs 4:7; 10:4
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.#Hs 4:10
12Even if they raise children,
I will bereave them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!#Hs 7:13
13I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,#Ezk 27:3–4
planted in a meadow,
so Ephraim will bring out his children
to the executioner.
14Give them, Lord —
What should you give?
Give them a womb that miscarries
and breasts that are dry!#Gn 49:25
15All their evil appears at Gilgal,#Hs 4:15; 12:11
for there I began to hate them.
I will drive them from my house
because of their evil, wicked actions.#Hs 4:9; 7:2; 12:2
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.#Hs 5:2
16Ephraim#Hs 5:11 is struck down;
their roots are withered;
they cannot bear fruit.#Hs 8:7
Even if they bear children,
I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.#Ezk 24:21
17My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;#Hs 4:10
they will become wanderers among the nations.#Hs 7:13
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers