Hosea 9

1 [You people of] Israel, do not shout joyfully [during your festivals] like [people of other] nations do! [I say that] because you have (not been faithful to/abandoned) me, your God. At every place where the people thresh grain you have [presented gifts to your idols like men] pay money to prostitutes.

Rejoice not, O Israel for ioy as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God: thou hast loued a rewarde vpon euery corne floore.

2 [But soon] there will not be enough grain [MTY, PRS] and wine [MTY, PRS] for you.

The floore, and the wine presse shall not feede them, and the newe wine shall faile in her.

3 And you people will not remain in the land that I, Yahweh, [gave to your ancestors]. You will be [captured and] taken to [Assyria], [where you will become slaves like your ancestors were] in Egypt; and in Assyria you will be forced to eat food that Yahweh has forbidden you to eat.

They wil not dwel in the Lordes lande, but Ephraim will returne to Egypt, and they will eate vncleane things in Asshur.

4 You Israelis will not [be able to] give wine offerings to him, or bring sacrifices to him. None of your other sacrifices will please him; they will be unacceptable to him, like [SIM] food that is touched by people at funerals, and everyone who eats that food will become unacceptable to him. They will be permitted to eat that food themselves, but they will not [be permitted to] bring it into the temple.

They shall not offer wine to the Lord, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasant vnto him: but they shall be vnto them as the bread of mourners: al that eate thereof, shalbe polluted: for their bread for their soules shall not come into the house of the Lord.

5 At that time you will not [RHQ] be able to celebrate the feasts and sacred festivals.

What wil ye do then in the solemne day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?

6 And even if you escape and are not killed [by the Assyrians], you will be captured by [the army of] Egypt, and you will [die and] be buried in Memphis, [the capital of Egypt]. Briers will [grow up and] cover your treasures of silver, and thorns will grow in your [ruined] tents/houses.

For loe, they are gone from destruction: but Egypt shall gather them vp, and Memphis shall burie them: the nettle shall possesse the pleasant places of their siluer, and the thorne shall be in their tabernacles.

7 It is now the time for Yahweh to punish you, to pay you back for all the sins that you have committed. You people will [soon] know that. You have [committed] very many sins, and you very much hate Yahweh. You consider that the prophets are foolish, and you think that those who proclaim messages from him are crazy.

The daies of visitation are come: the daies of recompence are come: Israel shall knowe it: the Prophet is a foole: the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquitie: therefore the hatred is great.

8 My God appointed [me and the other] prophets to be [like] [MET] watchmen [to warn] you people of Israel, but everywhere that we go, [it is as though] people set traps for us and people are hostile [to us, even] in the temple of our God.

The watchman of Ephraim shoulde bee with my God: but the Prophet is the snare of a fouler in all his waies, and hatred in the House of his God.

9 The sins that the Israeli people have committed are as awful as [what the men of] Gibeah did long ago; [so] God will not forget the wicked things that they have done; he will punish the Israelis for [all] those sins.

They are deepely set: they are corrupt as in the daies of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquitie, he will visite their sinnes.

10 [Yahweh says], “When I first started [to do things to help] Israel, it seemed to me as though [SIM] I had found grapes in the desert. Your ancestors were [delightful], like [SIM] the first figs that grow on fig trees [each year]. But when they came to Peor [Mountain], they worshiped that disgusting idol Baal, and they became as disgusting as the idol that they loved.

I found Israel like grapes in the wildernes: I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the figge tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-Peor, and separated themselues vnto that shame, and their abominations were according to their louers.

11 The things that cause Israel to be great will disappear like [SIM] a bird that flies away; [most of their women will] not become pregnant [DOU] or give birth to children.

Ephraim their glorie shall flee away like a birde: from the birth and from the wombe, and from the conception.

12 Even if their children are born and start to grow up, I will cause all of them to die [while they are still young]. Terrible things will happen to them when I abandon them!

Though they bring vp their children, yet I will depriue them from being men: yea, woe to them, when I depart from them.

13 I have seen Israel become beautiful and prosperous like Tyre [city] was [before it was destroyed], but now the people of Israel will [be forced to] take their children to be slaughtered [by their enemies].”

Ephraim, as I sawe, is as a tree in Tyrus planted in a cottage: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murtherer.

14 Yahweh, [I do not know] [RHQ] what I should ask for my people. So I ask that you do this one thing: Cause the women who are pregnant to have miscarriages and unable [to nurse their babies].

O Lord, giue them: what wilt thou giue them? giue them a baren wombe and drie breasts.

15 [Yahweh says], “Because of all the wicked things that my people did at Gilgal, that is where I started to hate them. [And now], because of [all] the sinful things that they have done, I will expel them from my country. I will not love them any longer; all their leaders rebel [against me].

All their wickednesse is in Gilgal: for there doe I hate them: for the wickednesse of their inuentions, I will cast them out of mine House: I will loue them no more: all their princes are rebels.

16 Israel is like [MET] a grapevine that is dried up; [like a vine] [MET] whose roots are withered and that produces no fruit. Even if the [women of Israel] give birth to [more] children, I will cause those children, whom they love, to die.

Ephraim is smitten, their roote is dried vp: they can bring no fruite: yea, though they bring foorth, yet will I slaie euen the dearest of their bodie.

17 The people of Israel have not obeyed me, their God, so I will reject them. [As a result], they will wander among the [other] nations, [searching for a place to live].”

My God will cast them away, because they did not obey him: and they shall wander among the nations.