Chapter 9

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

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

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

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  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.  

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  What will you do in the solemn day, in the day of the feast of the Lord?  

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  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.  

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  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 multitude of thy iniquity, and the multitude of thy madness.  

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

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

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  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.  

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

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  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.  

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

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  Give them, O Lord. What wilt thou give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts.  

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  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.  

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  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.  

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  My God will cast them away, because they hearkened not to him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.  

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