ሆሴዕ 9

No joy at the harvest

¹Do not rejoice, Israel; do not exult like the other nations, \q for you have prostituted yourself and left your God. \q You have loved a prostitute’s pay \q on every threshing floor heaped with grain. ²Neither threshing floor nor winepress will feed them, \q and the new wine will let her down. ³They will not stay in the land of the LORD. \q Ephraim will go back to Egypt, \q and in Assyria they will eat unclean food. ⁴They will pour out no wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will give him no pleasure. \q They will be like mourners’ bread to them; \q all who eat it will become unclean. \q Their bread will be for their own hunger; \q it will not come into the house of the LORD. ⁵What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, \q on the day of the feast of the LORD? ⁶For look, even if they escape the destruction, \q Egypt will gather them in, and Memphis will bury them. \q Nettles will take over their treasures of silver, \q and thorns will grow in their tents. ⁷The days of punishment have come; the days of repayment have come. \q Let Israel know it! \q “The prophet is a fool; the man of the Spirit is mad!” you say, \q because your guilt is so great \q and your hostility so deep.^{a 8}The prophet is the watchman over Ephraim, with my God; \q yet a fowler’s snare lies on all his paths, \q and hostility waits for him in the house of his God.^{b 9}They have sunk deep into corruption, as at Gibeah in days gone by. \q He will remember their guilt; \q he will punish their sins.^c

Grapes in the wilderness

¹⁰Like grapes in the desert, I found Israel; \q like the first ripe fruit on the fig tree in its first season, \q I saw your ancestors. \q But they came to the Baal of Peor and dedicated themselves to the Shameful One, \q and they became as detestable as the thing they loved.^{d 11}As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird: \q no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. ¹²Even if they raise children, \q I will take them until no one is left. \q Yes, woe to them when I turn away from them! ¹³Ephraim, as I have seen, was like Tyre, set in a pleasant meadow; \q but Ephraim will lead out his children to the killer.^{e 14}Give them, LORD — what should you give them? \q Give them wombs that miscarry \q and breasts that are dry. ¹⁵All their evil is in Gilgal; there I came to hate them. \q Because of their evil deeds \q I will drive them from my house. \q I will love them no more; \q all their officials are rebels. ¹⁶Ephraim is struck down; \q their root has dried up, and they will bear no fruit. \q Even if they give birth, \q I will put to death the dear children of their womb.

¹⁷My God will reject them \q because they have not listened to him, \q and they will wander among the nations.