Oséias 9

¹ Rejoice not, O Israel, for gladness, as other people; for thou art gone astray, unfaithful to thy God: thou hast loved the wages of sin upon every corn–filled threshing–floor.

² The threshing–floor and the wine–press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall deceive them.

³ They shall not dwell in the land of the Lord; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria will they eat unclean things.

⁴ They shall not pour out wine to the Lord, and their offerings shall not be pleasing unto him; their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for this their food can only be for themselves, it shall not come into the house of the Lord.

⁵ What will ye do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

⁶ For, lo, they are gone forth because of the desolation: Egypt will gather them up, Moph will bury them: the pleasant chambers for their silver,––these shall nettles take possession of; thorns shall grow in their tents.

⁷ Come are the days of the visitation, come are the days of thy recompense; this shall Israel experience: a fool was the prophet, mad the inspired man, because of the greatness of thy iniquity, and the great hatefulness.

⁸ The watchman of Ephraim with my God, the prophet, was a snare of the fowler on all his ways, a hateful thing in the house of his god.

⁹ They are deeply corrupt, as in the days of Gib’ah: he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

¹⁰ Like grapes in the wilderness had I found Israel; as the first ripe fruit on the fig–tree in the first of the season had I seen your fathers; but they too went to Ba’al–pe’or: and devoted themselves unto that shameful idol, and became abominations as those they loved.

¹¹ As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there is no more birth, and no pregnancy, and no conception.

¹² But though they were to bring up their children, yet would I bereave them, that there should be no man: yea, woe also to themselves, when I depart from them!

¹³ Ephraim, as I have seen him like Tyre, planted in a pleasant meadow,––yet this Ephraim shall lead forth to the murderer his children.

¹⁴ Give them, O Lord, what thou wilt give! give them a miscarrying womb and dried–up breasts.

¹⁵ All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I learnt to hate them; for the wickedness of their doings will I drive them out of my house: I will love them no farther; all their princes are rebels.

¹⁶ Smitten is Ephraim, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they should bring forth, yet would I slay the beloved fruit of their body.

¹⁷ My God will reject them, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.