Hosea
For by prostitution* you have strayed from your God.+
You have loved the wages of a prostitute on every threshing floor of grain.+
3 They will not continue dwelling in the land of Jehovah;+
Instead, Eʹphra·im will return to Egypt,
And in As·syrʹi·a they will eat what is unclean.+
They are like the bread of mourning;
All those eating it will defile themselves.
For their bread is for themselves alone;*
It will not come into the house of Jehovah.
6 For look! they will have to flee because of destruction.+
Egypt will gather them together,+ and Memʹphis will bury them.+
Nettles will take possession of their precious things of silver,
And thornbushes will be in their tents.
Their prophet will be a fool, and the man of inspiration will go mad;
Because your error is abundant, the animosity against you is abundant.”
8 The watchman+ of Eʹphra·im was with my God.+
But now all the ways of his prophets+ are as the traps of a birdcatcher;
There is animosity in the house of his God.
9 They have sunk deep into ruin, as in the days of Gibʹe·ah.+
He will remember their error and punish their sins.+
10 “Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel.+
Like the first of the early figs on a fig tree I saw your forefathers.
But they went to Baʹal of Peʹor;+
They dedicated themselves to the shameful thing,*+
And they became disgusting like the object of their love.
11 Eʹphra·im’s glory flies away like a bird;
There is no giving birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.+
12 Even if they raise children,
I will bereave them until no man is left;+
Yes, woe to them when I turn away from them!+
13 Eʹphra·im, planted in a pasture, was to me like Tyre;+
Now Eʹphra·im must bring his sons out to the slaughter.”
15 “All their wickedness was in Gilʹgal,+ for there I came to hate them.
I will drive them away from my house because of their evil deeds.+
I will no longer love them;+
All their princes are stubborn.
16 Eʹphra·im will be struck down.+
Their root will dry up, and they will produce no fruit.
Even if they give birth, I will put to death their cherished offspring.”