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.