Page:JPS-1917-Universal.djvu/738

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9.7
HOSEA

The days of recompense are come,
Israel shall know it.
The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad!
For the multitude of thine iniquity, the enmity is great.
8Ephraim is a watchman with my God;
As for the prophet, a fowler's snare is in all his ways,
And enmity in the house of his God.
9They have deeply corrupted themselves,
As in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their iniquity,
He will punish their sins.
10I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness,
I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at her first season,
But so soon as they came to Baal-peor,
They separated themselves unto the shameful thing,
And became detestable like that which they loved.
11As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird;
There shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.
12Yea, though they bring up their children,
Yet will I bereave them, that there be not a man left;
Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place;
But Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the slayer.
14Give them, O Lord, whatsoever Thou wilt give;
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15All their wickedness is in Gilgal,
For there I hated them;
Because of the wickedness of their doings
I will drive them out of My house;
I will love them no more,
All their princes are rebellious.
16Ephraim is smitten,
Their root is dried up,
They shall bear no fruit;
Yea, though they bring forth,
Yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb.
17My God will cast them away,
Because they did not hearken unto Him;
And they shall be wanderers among the nations.
10Israel was a luxuriant vine,
Which put forth fruit freely:
As his fruit increased,
He increased his altars;
The more goodly his land was,
The more goodly were his pillars.
2Their heart is divided;
Now shall they bear their guilt;
He will break down their altars,
He will spoil their pillars.
3Surely now shall they say:
'We have no king;
For we feared not the Lord;
And the king, what can he do for us?'
4They speak words,
They swear falsely, they make covenants;
Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock
In the furrows of the field.
5The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in dread
For the calves of Beth-aven;
For the people thereof shall mourn over it,
And the priests thereof shall tremble for it,
For its glory, because it is departed from it.
6It also shall be carried unto Assyria,

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