Hosea 9

1. Don’t rejoice, Isra’el! 1 Don’t enjoy yourselves as other peoples do; 1 for you have gone whoring away from your God, 1 you love being hired as a whore on every grain-floor.

2. Threshing-floor and winepress won’t feed them, 2 and new wine will disappoint her.

3. They won’t remain in the land of Adonai; 3 instead, Efrayim will return to Egypt, 3 and they will eat unclean food in Ashur.

4. They will not pour out wine offerings to Adonai; 4 they will not be pleasing to him. 4 Their sacrifices will be for them like mourners’ food — 4 everyone eating it will be polluted. 4 For their food will be merely to satisfy their appetite; 4 it will not come into the house of Adonai.

5. What will you do at a designated time, 5 on a day which is a festival for Adonai?

6. For suppose they escape the destruction — 6 Egypt will round them up, 6 Memphis will bury them. 6 And their precious treasures of silver? 6 Nettles will possess them, 6 thorns will be in their tents.

7. The days of punishment have come, 7 the days of retribution are here, 7 and Isra’el knows it. 7 [Yet they cry,] “The prophet is a fool, 7 the man of the spirit has gone crazy!” 7 Because your iniquity is so great, 7 the hostility [against you] is great.

8. The watchman of Efrayim is with my God, 8 but a prophet has a fowler’s snare set on all his paths 8 and hostility even in the house of his God.

9. They have deeply corrupted themselves, 9 as in the days of Giv‘ah. 9 He will remember their guilt, 9 and he will punish their sins.

10. “When I found Isra’el, it was like finding 10 grapes in the desert; 10 when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing 10 a fig tree’s first figs in its first season. 10 But as soon as they came to Ba‘al-P‘or, 10 they dedicated themselves to something shameful; 10 they became as loathsome 10 as the thing they loved.

11. The glory of Efrayim will fly away like a bird — 11 no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

12. Even if they raise their children, 12 I will destroy them till none is left — 12 and woe to them when I leave them, too!”

13. Efrayim, as I see it, is like Tzor, 13 planted in a pleasant place; 13 but Efrayim will bring out his children 13 to the slaughterer.

14. Adonai, give them — what will you give? 14 Give them wombs that miscarry and dried-up breasts!

15. “All their wickedness was already there in Gilgal; 15 that’s where I came to hate them. 15 Because of the wickedness of their deeds 15 I will expel them from my house, 15 I will love them no more; 15 all their leaders are rebels.

16. Efrayim has been struck down, 16 their root has been dried up, 16 they will bear no fruit. 16 Even if they do give birth, 16 I will kill their cherished offspring.”

17. My God will cast them aside, 17 because they wouldn’t listen to him, 17 and they will become wanderers 17 among the Goyim.