Hosea 9:1-4

Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel

9:1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations,

for you are unfaithful to your God.

You love to receive a prostitute's wages

on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

9:2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed the people,

and new wine only deceives them.

Assyrian Exile Will Reverse the Egyptian Exodus

9:3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land.

Ephraim will return to Egypt;

they will eat ritually unclean food in Assyria.

9:4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord;

they will not please him with their sacrifices.

Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning;

all those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean.

For their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite;

it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

Hosea 9:16

9:16 Ephraim will be struck down

their root will be dried up;

they will not yield any fruit.

Even if they do bear children,

I will kill their precious offspring.


tn Heb “do not rejoice unto jubilation”; KJV “Rejoice not…for joy”; NASB “Do not rejoice…with exultation.”

tn Heb “you have committed adultery”; NRSV “you have played the whore.”

tn Heb “you love the wages of the prostitute” (NIV similar); NAB “loving a harlot’s hire.”

tn Heb “them”; the referent (the people) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

tn Heb “her” (so KJV, ASV). This is taken as a collective singular (so also most modern English versions).

tn Or perhaps, following the plant metaphor, “will be blighted” (NIV similar).