Hosea 9
The Lord will punish Israel
as the people of other
You have not been
Like a prostitute, you sell yourselves to foreign gods
that you
The
They will have to return to Egypt.
In Assyria, they will have to eat food that is
Their
Instead, their offerings will be like food that people eat at a
Anyone who eats it becomes unclean.
They may eat the food to feed themselves,
but they cannot offer it to the Lord in his temple.
You will no longer be able to worship the Lord properly.
But then Egypt's army will take hold of them.
They will die in Memphis and people will bury them there.
Weeds will grow all over their valuable
The Lord must now pay them back for their
The Israelites will soon know about it!
You do many
Because of that, you say that his
You think that his
But wherever he goes, people try to stop him.
They speak angry words against him, even in the
like the
God will not forget the wicked things that they have done.
He will surely punish them for their sins.
The Lord warns his people
‘When I first found Israel, they gave me pleasure.
It was as if I had found
Your
like the first fruit on a young
But then they came to the god, Baal-Peor.
They began to
They became as disgusting as the idol that they loved so much.
They will be like birds that fly away!
The women of Israel will no longer give birth to children.
They will not even become
I will cause them all to die so that none are still alive.
It will be a
because I will turn away from them.
But now Ephraim's people must bring out their children
for an enemy to kill them.’
Make it impossible for their women to give birth!
Stop the milk from their breasts to feed their babies!
‘They started to do
It was there that I began to
Because they do evil things, I will chase them out of my land.
I will not love them any more.
Their leaders have all turned against me.
They are like a plant that has dry
and it gives no fruit.
Even if they give birth to children that they love very much,
I will kill those children.’
because they have not obeyed him.
They will have no home of their own.
They will have to live among different