Hosea 9:1-16

Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel

9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations,

for you are unfaithful to your God.

You love to receive a prostitute's wages

on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

9:2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed the people,

and new wine only deceives them.

Assyrian Exile Will Reverse the Egyptian Exodus

9:3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land.

Ephraim will return to Egypt;

they will eat ritually unclean food in Assyria.

9:4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord;

they will not please him with their sacrifices.

Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning;

all those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean.

For their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite;

it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

9:5 So what will you do on the festival day,

on the festival days of the Lord?

No Escape for the Israelites This Time!

9:6 Look! Even if they flee from the destruction,

Egypt will take hold of them,

and Memphis will bury them.

The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure –

thorn bushes will occupy their homes.

9:7 The time of judgment is about to arrive!

The time of retribution is imminent!

Let Israel know!

Israel Rejects Hosea’s Prophetic Exhortations

The prophet is considered a fool –

the inspired man is viewed as a madman –

because of the multitude of your sins

and your intense animosity.

9:8 The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim on behalf of God,

yet traps are laid for him along all of his paths;

animosity rages against him in the land of his God.

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

9:9 They have sunk deep into corruption

as in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their wrongdoing.

He will repay them for their sins.

9:10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness.

I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season.

Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame –

they became as detestable as what they loved.

The Fertility Worshipers Will Become Infertile

9:11 Ephraim will be like a bird;

what they value will fly away.

They will not bear children –

they will not enjoy pregnancy –

they will not even conceive!

9:12 Even if they raise their children,

I will take away every last one of them.

Woe to them!

For I will turn away from them.

9:13 Just as lion cubs are born predators,

so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.

9:14 Give them, O Lord –

what will you give them?

Give them wombs that miscarry,

and breasts that cannot nurse!

9:15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal,

I hate them there.

On account of their evil deeds,

I will drive them out of my land.

I will no longer love them;

all their rulers are rebels.

9:16 Ephraim will be struck down –

their root will be dried up;

they will not yield any fruit.

Even if they do bear children,

I will kill their precious offspring.