Hosea 9 — Legacy Standard Bible

Days of Punishment Have Come

9^aDo not be glad, O Israel, ¹with rejoicing like the peoples!For you have ^bplayed the harlot, ²forsaking your God.You have loved harlots’ earnings on ³every threshing floor.²Threshing floor and wine press will ^anot feed them,And the new wine will deceive ¹them.³They will not remain in ^athe land of Yahweh,But Ephraim will return to ^bEgypt,And in ^cAssyria they will eat ^dunclean food.⁴They will not pour out drink offerings of ^awine to Yahweh;^bTheir sacrifices will not please Him.Their bread will ¹be like ²mourners’ bread;All who eat of it will be ^cdefiled,For their bread will be for ³themselves alone;It will not enter the house of Yahweh.⁵^aWhat will you do on the day of the appointed festivalAnd on the day of the ^bfeast of Yahweh?⁶For behold, they will go because of destruction;Egypt will gather them up; ^aMemphis will bury them.Weeds will possess their desirable items of silver;^bThorns will be in their tents.⁷The days of ^apunishment have come;The days of ^brecompense have come;¹Let Israel know this!The prophet is an ^cignorant fool,The ²inspired man has ^dmadness,Because of the abundance of your ^einiquityAnd because your hostility has abounded.⁸Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,And there is only hostility in the house of his God.⁹They have dug ^adeep ¹in corruptionAs in the days of ^bGibeah;He will ^cremember their iniquity;He will punish their sins.

Grapes in the Wilderness

¹⁰I found Israel like ^agrapes in the wilderness;I saw your fathers as the ^bearliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.But they came to ^cBaal-peor and devoted themselves to ¹^,^dshame,And they became as ^edetestable as that which they loved.¹¹As for Ephraim, their ^aglory will fly away like a bird—No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!¹²Though they bring up their children,Yet I will bereave them ¹until not a man is left.Surely, ^awoe to them indeed when I depart from them!¹³Ephraim, as I have seen,Is planted in a pasture like ^aTyre;But Ephraim will bring out his children for killing.¹⁴Give them, O Yahweh—what will You give?Give them a ¹^,^amiscarrying womb and dry breasts.¹⁵All their evil is at ^aGilgal;Indeed, I came to hate them there!Because of the ^bevil of their deedsI will drive them out of My house!I will love them no more;All their princes are ^crebels.¹⁶^aEphraim is stricken; their root is dried up;They will bear ^bno fruit.Even though they bear children,I will put to death the ^cdesirable ones of their womb.¹⁷My God will despise themBecause they have ^anot listened to Him;And they will be ^bthose who flee among the nations.