Hosea 9 - New King James Version (NKJV)

Judgment of Israel’s Sin

9 Do(A) not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples,
For you have played the harlot against your God.
You have made love for (B)hire on every threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress
Shall not feed them,
And the new wine shall fail in her.

3 They shall not dwell in (C)the Lord’s land,
(D)But Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
And (E)shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord,
Nor (F)shall their (G)sacrifices be pleasing to Him.
It shall be like bread of mourners to them;
All who eat it shall be defiled.
For their bread shall be for their own life;
It shall not come into the house of the Lord.

5 What will you do in the appointed day,
And in the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt shall gather them up;
Memphis shall bury them.
(H)Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver;
Thorns shall be in their tents.

7 The (I)days of punishment have come;
The days of recompense have come.
Israel knows!
The prophet is a (J)fool,
(K)The spiritual man is insane,
Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
8 The (L)watchman of Ephraim is with my God;
But the prophet is a [a]fowler’s snare in all his ways—
Enmity in the house of his God.
9 (M)They are deeply corrupted,
As in the days of (N)Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity;
He will punish their sins.

10 “I found Israel
Like grapes in the (O)wilderness;
I saw your fathers
As the (P)firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season.
But they went to (Q)Baal Peor,
And [b]separated themselves to that shame;
(R)They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them to the last man.
Yes, (S)woe to them when I depart from them!
13 Just (T)as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place,
So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”

14 Give them, O Lord
What will You give?
Give them (U)a miscarrying womb
And dry breasts!

15 “All their wickedness is in (V)Gilgal,
For there I hated them.
Because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them from My house;
I will love them no more.
(W)All their princes are rebellious.
16 Ephraim is (X)stricken,
Their root is dried up;
They shall bear no fruit.
Yes, were they to bear children,
I would kill the darlings of their womb.”

17 My God will (Y)cast them away,
Because they did not obey Him;
And they shall be (Z)wanderers among the nations.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 9:8 One who catches birds in a trap or snare
  2. Hosea 9:10 Or dedicated

Cross references

  1. Hosea 9:1 : Is. 22:12, 13; Hos. 10:5
  2. Hosea 9:1 : Jer. 44:17
  3. Hosea 9:3 : [Lev. 25:23]; Jer. 2:7
  4. Hosea 9:3 : Hos. 7:16; 8:13
  5. Hosea 9:3 : Ezek. 4:13
  6. Hosea 9:4 : Jer. 6:20
  7. Hosea 9:4 : Hos. 8:13; Amos 5:22
  8. Hosea 9:6 : Is. 5:6; 7:23; Hos. 10:8
  9. Hosea 9:7 : Is. 10:3; Jer. 10:15; Mic. 7:4; Luke 21:22
  10. Hosea 9:7 : Lam. 2:14; [Ezek. 13:3, 10]
  11. Hosea 9:7 : Mic. 2:11
  12. Hosea 9:8 : Jer. 6:17; 31:6; Ezek. 3:17; 33:7
  13. Hosea 9:9 : Hos. 10:9
  14. Hosea 9:9 : Judg. 19:22
  15. Hosea 9:10 : Jer. 2:2
  16. Hosea 9:10 : Is. 28:4; Mic. 7:1
  17. Hosea 9:10 : Num. 25:3; Ps. 106:28
  18. Hosea 9:10 : Ps. 81:12
  19. Hosea 9:12 : Deut. 31:17; Hos. 7:13
  20. Hosea 9:13 : Ezek. 26—28
  21. Hosea 9:14 : Luke 23:29
  22. Hosea 9:15 : Hos. 4:15; 12:11
  23. Hosea 9:15 : Is. 1:23; Hos. 5:2
  24. Hosea 9:16 : Hos. 5:11
  25. Hosea 9:17 : 2 Kin. 17:20; [Zech. 10:6]
  26. Hosea 9:17 : Lev. 26:33