Hosea 9

1Do not rejoice, Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have whored from your God; you have loved hire on every grain threshing floor.

2The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and new wine will fail her.

3They will not remain in Yahweh's land, but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat defiled food in Assyria.

4They will not pour wine to Yahweh, nor will their sacrifices please him. Those sacrifices will be like mourners' bread to them; all who eat it will be defiled. For their bread for their appetite will not enter the house of Yahweh.

5What will you do on the day of the appointed assembly, and on the day of Yahweh's feast?

6For look, they have gone from destruction; Egypt will gather them, Memphis will bury them; nettles will possess their precious silver, thorns in their tents.

7The days of punishment have come, the days of retribution have come; Israel will know the prophet to be a fool, the man of the spirit to be mad, because of the abundance of your iniquity and the great hostility.

8Ephraim's watchman stands with my God; the prophet is a fowler's snare on all his paths, hatred in the house of his God.

9They have sunk deeply into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.

10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers like first-ripe figs on the fig tree at its first, but they came to Baal-peor, devoted themselves to disgrace, and became detestable like what they loved.

11Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird—from birth, from the womb, and from conception.

12Even though they rear their children, I will bereave them so no humans remain. Woe to them also when I turn away from them!

13Ephraim, as I saw Tyre planted in a beautiful dwelling; Ephraim will deliver his children to the slayer.

14Give them, Yahweh—what will you give? Give them a womb that miscarries and breasts that dry up.

15All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them; because of the evil of their deeds, I will drive them from my house—I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.

16Ephraim is beaten; their root has withered, they will produce no fruit—even though they bear children, I will slay the cherished ones of their wombs.

17My God will reject them because they did not heed him, and they will be wanderers among the nations.