הושע ט

Rejoice not, O Israel,
As other peoples exult;
For you have strayed
Away from your God:
You have loved a prostitute’s fee
By every threshing floor of new grain.

Threshing floor and winepress
Shall not join them,
And the new wine shall betray her.

They shall not be able to remain
In GOD’s land.
But Ephraim shall return to Egypt
And shall eat impure food in Assyria.

It shall be for them like the food of mourners,
All who partake of which are defiled.
They will offer no libations of wine to GOD,
And no sacrifices of theirs will please;
But their food will be only for their hunger,
It shall not come into the House of GOD.

What will you do about feast days,
About the festivals of GOD?

Behold, they have gone from destruction
[With] the silver they treasure.
Egypt shall hold them fast,
Moph shall receive them in burial.
Weeds are their heirs;
Prickly shrubs occupy their [old] homes.

The days of punishment have come
For your heavy guilt;
The days of requital have come—
Let Israel know it!
The prophet was distraught,
The inspired man driven mad
By constant harassment.

Ephraim watches for my God.
As for the prophet,
Fowlers’ snares are on all his paths,
Harassment in the House of his God.

They have been as grievously corrupt
As in the days of Gibeah;
[God] will remember their iniquity,
And will punish their sins.

I found Israel [as pleasing]
As grapes in the wilderness;
Your ancestors seemed to Me
Like the first fig to ripen on a fig tree.
But when they came to Baal-peor,
They turned aside to shamefulness;
Then they became as detested
As they had been loved.

From birth, from the womb, from conception
Ephraim’s glory shall be
Like birds that fly away.

Even if they rear their infants,
I will bereave them of everyone.
Woe to them indeed
When I turn away from them!

It shall go with Ephraim
As I have seen it go with Tyre,
Which was planted in a meadow;
Ephraim too must bring out
His children to slayers.

Give them, O ETERNAL One—give them what?
Give them a womb that miscarries,
And shriveled breasts!

All their misfortune [began] at Gilgal,
For there I disowned them.
For their evil deeds
I will drive them out of My House.
I will accept them no more;
All their officials are disloyal.

Ephraim is stricken,
Their stock is withered;
They can produce no fruit.
Even if they do bear children,
I will slay their cherished offspring.

My God rejects them
Because they have not obeyed,
And they shall go wandering
Among the nations.