Hosea Announces Punishment for Israel
1 People of Israel, stop celebrating your festivals like pagans. You have turned away from your God and have been unfaithful to him. All over the land you have sold yourselves like prostitutes to the god Baal and have loved the grain you thought he paid you with! 2 But soon you will not have enough grain and olive oil, and there will be no wine. 3 The people of Israel will not remain in the Lord's land, but will have to go back to Egypt and will have to eat forbidden food in Assyria. 4 In those foreign lands they will not be able to make wine offerings to the Lord or bring their sacrifices to him. Their food will defile everyone who eats it, like food eaten at funerals. It will be used only to satisfy their hunger; none of it will be taken as an offering to the Lord's Temple. 5 And when the time comes for the appointed festivals in honor of the Lord, what will they do then? 6 When the disaster comes and the people are scattered, the Egyptians will gather them up—gather them for burial there at Memphis! Their treasures of silver and the places where their homes once stood will be overgrown with weeds and thorn bushes.
7 The time for punishment has come, the time when people will get what they deserve. When that happens, Israel will know it! “This prophet,” you say, “is a fool. This inspired man is insane.” You people hate me so much because your sin is so great. 8 God has sent me as a prophet to warn his people Israel. Yet wherever I go, you try to trap me like a bird. Even in God's Temple the people are the prophet's enemies. 9 They are hopelessly evil in what they do, just as they were at Gibeah. God will remember their sin and punish them for it.
Israel's Sin and Its Consequences
10 The Lord says, “When I first found Israel, it was like finding grapes growing in the desert. When I first saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But when they came to Mount Peor, they began to worship Baal and soon became as disgusting as the gods they loved. 11 Israel's greatness will fly away like a bird, and there will be no more children born to them, no more women pregnant, no more children conceived. 12 But even if they did bring up children, I would take them away and not leave one alive. When I abandon these people, terrible things will happen to them.”
13 Lord, I can see their children being hunted down and killed. 14 What shall I ask you to do to these people? Make their women barren! Make them unable to nurse their babies!
The Lord's Judgment on Israel
15 The Lord says, “All their evildoing began in Gilgal. It was there that I began to hate them. And because of the evil they have done, I will drive them out of my land. I will not love them any more; all their leaders have rebelled against me. 16 The people of Israel are like a plant whose roots have dried up and which bears no fruit. They will have no children, but even if they did, I would kill the children so dear to them.”
The Prophet Speaks about Israel
17 The God I serve will reject his people, because they have not listened to him. They will become wanderers among the nations.
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.