Hosea 9:1-17 - Ephraim Faces Punishment
1
for you have acted promiscuously,
You have loved the wages of a prostitute
on every grain-threshing floor.
and the new wine will fail them.
Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food
4
their wine offerings to the Lord,
and their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their food will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat it become defiled.
For their bread will be for their appetites alone;
it will not enter the house of the Lord.
on the day of the Lord’s feast?
Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.
Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;
thorns will invade their tents.
7
the days of retribution have come.
Let Israel recognize it!
The prophet is a fool,
and the inspired man is insane,
because of the magnitude
of your guilt and hostility.
The prophet encounters a fowler’s snare
on all his ways.
Hostility is in the house of his God!
as in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their guilt;
He will punish their sins.
10
like grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your fathers
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.
But they went to Baal-peor,
consecrated themselves to Shame,
and became detestable,
like the thing they loved.
no birth, no gestation, no conception.
I will bereave them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
planted in a meadow,
so Ephraim will bring out his children
to the executioner.
What should You give?
Give them a womb that miscarries
and breasts that are dry!
15
for there I came to hate them.
I will drive them from My house
because of their evil, wicked actions.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.
their roots are withered;
they cannot bear fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.
because they have not listened to Him;
they will become wanderers among the nations.