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Listen! Perhaps some Israelites will escape when Assyria's army attacks.
But then Egypt's army will take hold of them.
They will die in Memphis and people will bury them there.[a]
Weeds will grow all over their valuable silver things.
Thorn bushes will grow in their homes.
The time for Israel's punishment has arrived!
The Lord must now pay them back for their sins.
The Israelites will soon know about it!

You do many sins and you hate the Lord.
Because of that, you say that his prophets are fools.
You think that his messengers are crazy.
God has sent his prophet to warn the people of Ephraim.[b]
But wherever he goes, people try to stop him.
They speak angry words against him, even in the temple of his God.

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Footnotes

  1. 9:6 Memphis was a city in Egypt.
  2. 9:8 Perhaps Hosea is talking about himself as the prophet that God has sent to warn his people. Ephraim is another name for Israel, the northern kingdom.

Even if they escape from destruction,
    Egypt will gather them,(A)
    and Memphis(B) will bury them.(C)
Their treasures of silver(D) will be taken over by briers,
    and thorns(E) will overrun their tents.
The days of punishment(F) are coming,
    the days of reckoning(G) are at hand.
    Let Israel know this.
Because your sins(H) are so many
    and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,(I)
    the inspired person a maniac.(J)
The prophet, along with my God,
    is the watchman over Ephraim,[a]
yet snares(K) await him on all his paths,
    and hostility in the house of his God.(L)

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 9:8 Or The prophet is the watchman over Ephraim, / the people of my God