OEB HOS Chapter 9

The horrors of the coming exile

9 Rejoice not too loudly, Israel,

like the nations,

for you have commited adultery,

being untrue to your God.

You have loved a prostitute’s wages

on every threshing floor.

2 Threshing floor and wine vat won’t feed them,

the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not stay in the Lord’s land,

but Ephraim will return to Egypt,

and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean.

4 They will not pour out libations of wine to the Lord,

nor please him with their sacrifices.

Their bread will be like the bread of mourners:

all who eat it will defile themselves.

For their bread will be only for their hunger,

it will not come into the Lord’s temple.

5 What will you do on the day of the festival?

Or on the day of the Lord’s feast?

6 Even if they flee from destruction,

Egypt will gather them,

Memphis will bury them.

Nettles will take possession of their treasure of silver,

thorns will push into their tents.

7 The days of punishment are come,

the days of recompense are at hand,

as soon the Israelites will know!

‘The prophet is a fool,

the inspired man is raving mad!’

It is because of the greatness of your iniquity

and the greatness of your hatred.

8 Ephraim acts the spy with my God,

a prophet finds the snares of a fowler are in all his ways.

In the house of his God they lay hostile plots,

9 they commit crimes as in the days of Gibeah,

God will remember their iniquity.

He will punish their sin.

Israel’s corruption

10 I found Israel

like finding grapes in the wilderness.

I saw your ancestors

like they were the first fruit on a fig tree,

but as soon as they came to Baal-peor,

they consecrated themselves to shamefulness,

and became as abominable as the object of their love.

11 Ephraim – like a bird his glory flies away.

There will be no more birth,

no more motherhood,

no more conception.

12 Even though they bring up their children,

I will bereave them until not one is left.

Woe to them when I turn away from them!

13 Ephraim – planted like Tyre in a meadow[fn],

But Ephraim too must lead forth their children to slaughter.

14 Give them, Lord – what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb and shrivelled up breasts!

15 All their evil began in Gilgal,

there I learned to hate them.

Because of the evil of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will no longer love them,

for all their princes are rebels.

16 Ephraim is blighted,

their root withered.

If they do bear children,

I will slay the darlings of their womb,

17 My God will reject them

because they have not listened to him,

and they will become wanderers among the nations.