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[a]The watchman of Ephraim, the people of my God, is the prophet;(A)
    yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
    hostility in the house of his God.
They have sunk to the depths of corruption,
    as in the days of Gibeah;[b](B)
God will remember their iniquity
    and punish their sins.

From Former Glory to a History of Corruption

10 Like grapes in the desert,
    I found Israel;
Like the first fruits of the fig tree, its first to ripen,(C)
    I looked on your ancestors.
But when they came to Baal-peor[c](D)
    and consecrated themselves to the Shameful One,
    they became as abhorrent as the thing they loved.

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Footnotes

  1. 9:8 Prophets, like Hosea himself, are called to be sentinels for Israel, warning Israel of God’s coming wrath (see Ez 3:17; 33:7), but often meet rejection.
  2. 9:9 The days of Gibeah: the precise allusion is not clear. Perhaps it is a reference to the outrage committed at Gibeah in the days of the judges (Jgs 19–21), or to questions surrounding Saul’s kingship at Gibeah (1 Sm 10:26; 14:2; 22:6).
  3. 9:10 Baal-peor: where the Israelites consecrated themselves for the first time to Baal (Nm 25; see note on Hos 5:1–2). Baal is here called the Shameful One.

The prophet, along with my God,
    is the watchman over Ephraim,[a]
yet snares(A) await him on all his paths,
    and hostility in the house of his God.(B)
They have sunk deep into corruption,(C)
    as in the days of Gibeah.(D)
God will remember(E) their wickedness
    and punish them for their sins.(F)

10 “When I found Israel,
    it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
    it was like seeing the early fruit(G) on the fig(H) tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,(I)
    they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol(J)
    and became as vile as the thing they loved.

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Footnotes

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