Israel’s Punishment 1 UDB Hosea says this: Do not be happy, O Israel; do not celebrate like other peoples! You have been unfaithful to your God. You have refused to do what he told you. At every place where people thresh their grain, you give your offerings and sacrifices to idols. You are just like men who pay money to sleep with women. BSB BSB: Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
2 UDB Now you will not have enough grain or wine to feed your people. You will have no hope for any new wine, for the vines will fail you. BSB BSB: The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail them.
3 UDB The people of Israel will not continue to live in the land that Yahweh has chosen as his own. Instead, they will go back to Egypt one day. And in Assyria they will have to eat the kind of food that God had forbidden them to eat. BSB BSB: They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 UDB No longer will they pour out wine to offer it to Yahweh; their sacrifices will not please him at all. Their sacrifices will be as unacceptable to God as the food that people eat at funerals; and everyone who eats that food becomes unacceptable to God. That food will be all they eat; they will not be able to bring it into Yahweh's house to offer it to him. BSB BSB: They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the LORD.
5 UDB There, in a country far from your home, you will not be able to celebrate the festivals that Yahweh commanded you to celebrate. BSB BSB: What will you do on the appointed day, on the day of the LORD’s feast?
6 UDB Look! If you escape and the Assyrians do not kill you, the army of Egypt will capture you. You will die there, and the people in the city of Memphis will bury you. All your wealth in silver will be covered up and lost when the desert plants grow into your homes and take them over. BSB BSB: For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents.
7 UDB It is now the time for God to punish you; the time has come in which God will pay you back for every sin you have committed. And all you people of Israel must realize that these things will happen. So your false prophets are fools, and those who you thought were inspired by God are actually insane. This is because you have sinned so much and because you have become Yahweh's enemies. BSB BSB: The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived—let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.
8 UDB True prophets are people whom God has assigned to guard the people of Israel. But everywhere they go, others set traps for them; even in the temple of their God, others hate them. BSB BSB: The prophet is Ephraim’s watchman, along with my God, yet the snare of the fowler lies on all his paths. Hostility is in the house of his God!
9 UDB The people have polluted themselves by sinning as the Israelites did at Gibeah long ago. God will not forget the wicked things they did; he will certainly punish them. BSB BSB: They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
11 UDB The honor of Ephraim is like a bird that is flying away. I will make their women so they cannot give birth, no woman will be pregnant, and no one will even conceive a child in the womb. BSB BSB: Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
12 UDB Even if they raise children not their own, I will take them from their mothers. It will be the worst that could happen to them, when I abandon them! BSB BSB: Even if they raise their children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe be to them when I turn away from them!
13 UDB I have seen the people of Israel; they were like Tyre; they were like a tree planted in a beautiful meadow. But they will have to lead their own children out to their enemies, who will slaughter them." BSB BSB: I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a meadow. But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
14 UDB Hosea says, Yahweh, give them— what should you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry, and let their mothers' breasts have no milk for their babies. BSB BSB: Give them, O LORD—what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!
15 UDB Yahweh says, "Because of all the wicked things my people did at Gilgal, that is where I started to hate them. And because of all the sinful deeds they have done, I will drive them out of the place they live. I will not love them any more; all their officials fight against me. BSB BSB: All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.
16 UDB Ephraim is like a vine that has dried up and produces no fruit. Even if they give birth, I will put to death those children they love." BSB BSB: Ephraim is struck down; their root is withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay the darlings of their wombs.
17 UDB Hosea says, My God rejected the people of Israel because they have not obeyed him, and they will wander from one nation to another. BSB BSB: My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.