9:1 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.
9:2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them, and the new wine will fail them.
9:3 They will not stay in the land of the LORD. Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
9:4 They will not pour out their wine offerings to the LORD, 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 the LORD.
9:5 What will you do on a festival day, on the day of the LORD's feast?
9:6 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.
9:7 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.
9:8 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!
9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
9:10 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.
9:11 Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird: no birth, no gestation, no conception.
9:12 Even if they raise children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
9:13 I have seen Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a meadow, so Ephraim will bring out his children to the executioner.
9:14 Give them, LORD-- What should You give? Give them a womb that miscarries and breasts that are dry!
9:15 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.
9:16 Ephraim is struck down; their roots are withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.
9:17 My God will reject them because they have not listened to Him; they will become wanderers among the nations.
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