- HOSEA
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9
Israel will be punished
1 You people of Israel, do not shout joyfully during your festivals like people of other nations do!
I say that because you have ◄not been faithful to/abandoned► me, your God.
At every place where the people thresh grain
you have presented gifts to your idols like men pay money to prostitutes.
2 But soon there will not be enough grain [MTY, PRS] and wine [MTY, PRS] for you.
3 And you people will not remain in the land that I, Yahweh, gave to your ancestors.
You will be captured and taken to Assyria,
where you will become slaves like your ancestors were in Egypt;
and in Assyria you will be forced to eat food that Yahweh has forbidden you to eat.
4 You Israelis will not be able to give wine offerings to him,
or bring sacrifices to him.
None of your other sacrifices will please him;
they will be unacceptable to him, like [SIM] food that is touched by people at funerals,
and everyone who eats that food will become unacceptable to him.
They will be permitted to eat that food themselves,
but they will not be permitted to bring it into the temple.
5 At that time you will not [RHQ] be able to celebrate the feasts and sacred festivals.
6 And even if you escape and are not killed by the Assyrians,
you will be captured by the army of Egypt,
and you will die and be buried in Memphis, the capital of Egypt.
Briers will grow up and cover your treasures of silver,
and thorns will grow in your ruined tents/houses.
7 It is now the time for Yahweh to punish you,
to pay you back for all the sins that you have committed.
You people will soon know that.
You have committed very many sins,
and you very much hate him.
You consider that the prophets are foolish,
and you think that those who proclaim messages from him are crazy.
8 My God appointed me and the other prophets
to be like [MET] watchmen to warn you people of Israel,
but everywhere that we go, it is as though people set traps for us
and people are hostile to us, even in the temple of our God.
9 The sins that the Israeli people have committed are as awful as what the men of Gibeah did long ago;
so God will not forget the wicked things that they have done;
he will punish them for all those sins.
10 Yahweh says, “When I first started to do things to help Israel,
it seemed to me as though [SIM] I had found grapes in the desert.
Your ancestors were delightful,
like [SIM] the first figs that grow on fig trees each year.
But when they came to Peor Mountain,
they worshiped that disgusting idol Baal,
and they became as disgusting as the idol that they loved.
11 The things that cause Israel to be great will disappear
like [SIM] a bird that flies away;
most of their women will not become pregnant [DOU] or give birth to children.
12 Even if their children are born and grow up,
I will cause all of them to die while they are still young.
Terrible things will happen to them
when I abandon them!
13 I have seen Israel become beautiful and prosperous like Tyre city was before it was destroyed,
but now the people of Israel will be forced to bring out their children to be slaughtered by their enemies.”
14 Yahweh, I do not know [RHQ] what I should request for my people.
So I request that you do this one thing:
Cause the women who are pregnant to have miscarriages
and have breasts that have no milk in them to nurse their babies.
15 Yahweh says, “Because of all the wicked things that my people did at Gilgal,
that is where I started to hate them.
And now, because of all the sinful deeds that they have done,
I will expel them from my country.
I will not love them any longer;
all their leaders rebel against me.
16 Israel is like [MET] a grapevine that is dried up;
like a vine [MET] whose roots are withered
and that produces no fruit.
Even if the women of Israel give birth to more children,
I will cause those children whom they love to die.
17 The people of Israel have not obeyed me, their God,
so I will reject them.
As a result, they will wander among the other nations, searching for a place to live.”

- HOSEA
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© 2008-2016 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.