Part 581 (1/2)

8:7. For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.

8:8. Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations like an unclean vessel.

8:9. For they are gone up to a.s.syria, a wild a.s.s alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers.

8:10. But even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the princes.

8:11. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin: altars are become to him unto sin.

8:12. I shall write to him my manifold laws, which have been accounted as foreign.

8:13. They shall offer victims, they shall sacrifice flesh, and shall eat it, and the Lord will not receive them: now will he remember their iniquity, and will visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

8:14. And Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and hath built temples: and Juda hath built many fenced cities: and I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the houses thereof.

Osee Chapter 9

The distress and captivity of Israel for their sins and idolatry.

9:1. Rejoice not, O Israel: rejoice not as the nations do: for thou hast committed fornication against thy G.o.d, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.

9:2. The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the wine shall deceive them.

9:3. They shall not dwell in the Lord's land: Ephraim is returned to Egypt, and hath eaten unclean things among the a.s.syrians.

9:4. They shall not offer wine to the Lord, neither shall they please him: their sacrifices shall be like the bread of mourners: all that shall eat it shall be defiled: for their bread is life for their soul, it shall not enter into the house of the Lord.

9:5. What will you do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the Lord?

9:6. For behold they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them together, Memphis shall bury them: nettles shall inherit their beloved silver, the bur shall be in their tabernacles.

9:7. The days of visitation are come, the days of repaying are come: know ye, O Israel, that the prophet was foolish, the spiritual man was mad, for the mult.i.tude of thy iniquity, and the mult.i.tude of thy madness.

9:8. The watchman of Ephraim was with my G.o.d: the prophet is become a snare of ruin upon all his ways, madness is in the house of his G.o.d.

9:9. They have sinned deeply, as in the days of Gabaa: he will remember their iniquity, and will visit their sin.

9:10. I found Israel like grapes in the desert, I saw their fathers like the firstfruits of the fig tree in the top thereof: but they went in to Beelphegor, and alienated themselves to that confusion, and became abominable, as those things were, which they loved.

9:11. As for Ephraim, their glory hath flown away like bird from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

9:12. And though they should bring up their children, I will make them without children among men: yea, and woe to them, when I shall depart from them.

9:13. Ephraim, as I saw, was a Tyre, founded in beauty: and Ephraim shall bring out his children to the murderer.

9:14. Give them, O Lord. What wilt thou give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

9:15. All their wickedness is in Galgal, for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their devices I will cast them forth out of my house: I will love them no more, all their princes are revolters.

9:16. Ephraim is struck, their root is dried up, they shall yield no fruit. And if they should have issue, I will slay the best beloved fruit of their womb.