Israel Will Be Punished
1 Israel, don't celebrate
or make noisy shouts
like other nations.
You have been unfaithful
to your God.
Wherever grain is threshed,
you behave like prostitutes
because you enjoy
the money you receive.
2 But you will run short
of grain and wine,
3 and you will have to leave
the land of the Lord.
Some of you will go to Egypt;
others will go to Assyria
and eat unclean food.
4 You won't be able to offer
sacrifices of wine
to the Lord.
None of your sacrifices
will please him—
they will be unclean
like food offered to the dead.
Your food will only be used
to satisfy your hunger;
none of it will be brought
to the Lord's temple.
5 You will no longer be able
to celebrate the festival
of the Lord.
6 Even if you escape alive,
you will end up in Egypt
and be buried in Memphis.
Your silver treasures
will be lost among weeds;
thorns will sprout in your tents.
7 Israel, the time has come.
You will get what you deserve,
and you will know it.
“Prophets are fools,” you say.
“And God's messengers
are crazy.”
Your terrible guilt
has filled you with hatred.
8 Israel, the Lord sent me
to look after you.
But you trap his prophets
and flood his temple
with your hatred.
9 You are brutal and corrupt,
as were the men of Gibeah.
But God remembers your sin,
and you will be punished.
Sin's Terrible Results
10 Israel, when I, the Lord,
found you long ago
it was like finding
grapes in a barren desert
or tender young figs.
Then you worshiped Baal Peor,
that disgusting idol,
and you became as disgusting
as the idol you loved.
11 And so, Israel, your glory
will fly away like birds—
your women will no longer
be able to give birth.
12 Even if you do have children,
I will take them all
and leave you to mourn.
I will turn away,
and you will sink down
in deep trouble.
13 Israel, when I first met you,
I thought of you as palm trees
growing in fertile ground.
Now you lead your people out,
only to be slaughtered.
Hosea's Advice
14 Our Lord, do just one thing
for your people—
make their women unable
to have children
or to nurse their babies.
The Lord's Judgment on Israel
15 Israel, I first began
to hate you because
you did evil at Gilgal.
Now I will chase you
out of my house.
No longer will I love you;
your leaders betrayed me.
16 Israel, you are a vine
with dried-up roots
and fruitless branches.
Even if you had more children
and loved them dearly,
I would slaughter them all.
Hosea Warns Israel
17 Israel, you disobeyed my God.
Now he will force you to roam
from nation to nation.
1 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 The floore, and the wine presse shall not feede them, and the newe wine shall faile in her. 3 They wil not dwel in the Lordes lande, but Ephraim will returne to Egypt, and they will eate vncleane things in Asshur. 4 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 What wil ye do then in the solemne day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord? 6 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 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 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 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 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 Ephraim their glorie shall flee away like a birde: from the birth and from the wombe, and from the conception. 12 Though they bring vp their children, yet I will depriue them from being men: yea, woe to them, when I depart from them. 13 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 O Lord, giue them: what wilt thou giue them? giue them a baren wombe and drie breasts. 15 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 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 My God will cast them away, because they did not obey him: and they shall wander among the nations.