Hosea 9:1-11

1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, For you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress Shall not feed them, And the new wine shall fail in her.
3 They shall not dwell in the Lord's land, But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, And shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, Nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them; All who eat it shall be defiled. For their bread shall be for their own life; It shall not come into the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do in the appointed day, And in the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver; Thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come; The days of recompense have come. Israel knows! The prophet is a fool, The spiritual man is insane, Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God; But the prophet is a fowler's snare in all his ways-- Enmity in the house of his God.
9 They are deeply corrupted, As in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins.
10 "I found Israel Like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor, And separated themselves to that shame; They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird-- No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. That is, one who catches birds in a trap or snare
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.