9:1  Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations! For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. You have loved harlots' earnings on every threshing floor.

9:2  Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them, And the new wine will fail them.

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, Their sacrifices will not please Him Their bread will resemble mourners' bread; All who eat of it will defile themselves, For their bread they will consume for themselves alone; It will not enter the house of the LORD.

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 go because of destruction; Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them Weeds will take over their treasures of silver; Thorns will appear in their tents.

9:7  The days of punishment have come, The days of retribution have come; Let Israel know this! The prophet shows himself a fool, The inspired man has dementia, Because of the grossness of your iniquity, And because your hostility has become great.

9:8  Ephraim serves as a watchman with my God, a prophet; Yet the snare of a bird catcher enters all his ways, And only hostility remains in the house of his God.

9:9  They have gone deep in depravity As in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their iniquity, 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 shame, And they became as detestable as that which they loved.

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 until not a man remains. Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!

9:13  Ephraim, as I have seen, I have planted in a pleasant meadow like Tyre; But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.

9:14  Give them, O LORD--what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

9:15  All their evil appears 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 love them no more; All their princes have become rebels.

9:16  Ephraim has become stricken, their root dries up, They will bear no fruit Even though they bear children, I will slay the precious ones of their womb.

9:17  My God will cast them away Because they have not listened to Him; And they will wander among the nations.