9:1 Do not rejoice, Israel, ①with jubilation like the ②nations!
For you have been unfaithful, ③abandoning your God.
You have loved the earnings of unfaithfulness on ④every threshing floor.
▷ ①Lit to ②Lit peoples ③Lit away from your God ④Lit all threshing floors of grain
9:2 Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them,
And the new wine will fail ①them.
▷ ①Lit her
9:3 They will not remain in the LORD’S land,
But Ephraim will return to Egypt,
And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
9:4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD,
Nor will ①their sacrifices please Him.
Their bread will be to them like ②mourners’ bread;
All who eat it will be defiled,
Because their bread will be for ③themselves alone;
It will not enter the house of the LORD.
▷ ①Or they offer to Him their ②Lit bread of mourning ③Lit their soul
9:5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival
And on the day of the feast of the LORD?
9:6 For behold, they will be gone because of destruction;
Egypt will gather them together, Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will take possession of their treasures of silver;
Thorns will be in their tents.
9:7 The days of punishment have come,
The days of retribution have come;
①Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a fool,
The ②inspired person is insane,
Because of the grossness of your wrongdoing,
And because your ③hostility is so great.
▷ ①Or Israel will know this ②Lit man of the spirit ③Or persecution
9:8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
And there is only ①hostility in the house of his God.
▷ ①Or persecution
9:9 They are deeply depraved
As in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their guilt,
He will punish their sins.
9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.
But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to ①shame,
And they became as detestable as that which they loved.
▷ ①I.e., Baal
9:11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
9:12 Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them of their children ①until not a person is left.
Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
▷ ①Lit without a person
9:13 Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pasture like Tyre;
But Ephraim is going to bring out his children for slaughter.
9:14 Give to them, LORD—what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts.
9:15 All their evil is at Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will no longer love them;
All their leaders are rebels.
9:16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will produce no fruit.
Even though they give birth to children,
I will put to death the precious ones of their womb.
9:17 My God will reject them
Because they have not listened to Him;
And they will be wanderers among the nations.