9:1 REJOICE NOT, O Israel, with exultation as do the peoples, for you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. You have loved [a harlot's] hire upon every threshing floor [ascribing the harvest to the Baals instead of to God]. |
9:2 The threshing floor and the winevat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. |
9:3 They shall not remain in the Lord's land, but Ephraim shall return to [another] Egypt and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria. |
9:4 They shall not pour out wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing to Him. Their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourners; all who eat of them shall be defiled, for their bread shall be [only] for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of the Lord [to be offered first to Him]. |
9:5 What will you do on the day of the appointed solemn assembly {or} festival and on the day of the feast of the Lord [when you are in exile]? |
9:6 For behold, they are gone away from devastation {and} destruction; Egypt shall gather them in; Memphis shall bury them. Their precious things of silver shall be in the possession of nettles; thorns shall be [growing] in their tents. |
9:7 The days of visitation {and} punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is [considered] a crazed fool and the man who is inspired is [treated as if] mad {or} a fanatic, because of the abundance of your iniquity and because the enmity, hostility, {and} persecution are great. |
9:8 Ephraim was [intended to be] a watchman with my God [and a prophet to the surrounding nations]; but he, that prophet, has become a fowler's snare in all his ways. There is enmity, hostility, {and} persecution in the house of his God. |
9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. The Lord will [earnestly] remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins. |
9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe fruit on the fig tree in its first season, but they went to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to that shameful thing [Baal], and they became detestable {and} loathsome like that which they loved. |
9:11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird; there shall be no birth, no being with child, and [because of their impurity] no becoming pregnant. |
9:12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them so that not a man shall be left; yes, woe also to them when I look away {and} depart from them! |
9:13 Ephraim, as I have seen with Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place, but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slayer. |
9:14 Give them [their due], O Lord! [But] what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. |
9:15 All their wickedness [says the Lord] is focused in Gilgal, for there I hated them; for the wickedness of their [idolatrous] doings I will drive them out of My house [the Holy Land]; I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. |
9:16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Yes, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even their beloved children. |
9:17 My God will cast them away because they did not listen to {and} obey Him, and they shall be wanderers {and} fugitives among the nations. |