The Coming Exile
1 Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,
for you have acted promiscuously,leaving your God.
You have loved the wages of a prostitute
on every grain-threshing floor.
2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,
and the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not stay in the land of theLord.
Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean foodin Assyria.
4 They will not pour out
their wine offerings to theLord,
and their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their food will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat it become defiled.
For their bread will be for their appetites alone;
it will not enter the house of theLord.
5 What will you do on a festival day,
on the day of theLord’s feast?
6 For even if they flee from devastation,
Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.
Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;
thorns will invade their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;
the days of retribution have come.
Let Israel recognize it!
The prophet is a fool,
and the inspired man is insane,
because of the magnitude
of your guilt and hostility.
8 Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.
The prophet encounters a fowler’s snare
on all his ways.
Hostility is in the house of his God!
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their guilt;
He will punish their sins.
Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring
10 I discovered Israel
like grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your fathers
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.
But they went to Baal-peor,
consecrated themselves to Shame,
and became detestable,
like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:
no birth, no gestation, no conception.
12 Even if they raise children,
I will bereave them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
13 I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,
planted in a meadow,
so Ephraim will bring out his children
to the executioner.
14 Give them,Lord—
What should You give?
Give them a womb that miscarries
and breasts that are dry!
15 All their evil appears at Gilgal,
for there I came to hate them.
I will drive them from My house
because of their evil, wicked actions.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.
16 Ephraimis struck down;
their roots are withered;
they cannot bear fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to Him;
they will become wanderers among the nations.
—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/9-2d0c900a35598671d70a55718098e4d0.mp3?version_id=72—