The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 581

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.

9:17. My G.o.d will cast them away, because they hearkened not to him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Osee Chapter 10

After many benefits, great affliction shall fall upon the ten tribes, for their ingrat.i.tude to G.o.d.

10:1. Israel a vine full of branches, the fruit is agreeable to it: according to the mult.i.tude of his fruit, he hath multiplied altars, according to the plenty of his land he hath abounded with idols.

10:2. Their heart is divided: now they shall perish: he shall break down their idols, he shall destroy their altars.

10:3. For now they shall say: We have no king: because we fear not the Lord: and what shall a king do to us?

10:4. You speak words of an unprofitable vision, and you shall make a covenant: and judgment shall spring up as bitterness in the furrows of the field.

10:5. The inhabitants of Samaria have wors.h.i.+pped the kine of Bethaven: for the people thereof have mourned over it, and the wardens of its temple that rejoiced over it in its glory because it is departed from it.

The kine of Bethaven... The golden calves of Jeroboam.

10:6. For itself also is carried into a.s.syria, a present to the avenging king: shame shall fall upon Ephraim, and Israel shall be confounded in his own will.

Itself also is carried, etc... One of the golden calves was given by king Manahem, to Phul, king of the a.s.syrians, to engage him to stand by him.

10:7. Samaria hath made her king to pa.s.s as froth upon the face of the water.

10:8. And the high places of the idol, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed: the bur and the thistle shall grow up over their altars: and they shall say to the mountains Cover us; and to the hills: Fall upon us.

10:9. From the days of Gabaa, Israel hath sinned, there they stood: the battle in Gabaa against the children of iniquity shall not overtake them.

10:10. According to my desire, I will chastise them: and the nations shall be gathered together against them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.

Their two iniquities... Their two calves.

10:11. Ephraim is a heifer taught to love to tread out corn, but I pa.s.sed over upon the beauty of her neck: I will ride upon Ephraim, Juda shall plough, Jacob shall break the furrows for himself.

10:12. Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy, break up your fallow ground: but the time to seek the Lord is, when he shall come that shall teach you justice.

10:13. You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lying: because thou hast trusted in thy ways, in the mult.i.tude of thy strong ones.

10:14. A tumult shall arise among thy people: and all thy fortresses shall be destroyed as Salmana was destroyed, by the house of him that judged Baal in the day of battle, the mother being dashed in pieces upon her children.

As Salmana, king of the Midianites, was destroyed by the house, that is, by the followers of him that judged Baal; that is, of Gideon, who threw down the altar of Baal; and was therefore called Jerubaal. See Judges 6 and 8.

10:15. So hath Bethel done to you, because of the evil of your iniquities.

Osee Chapter 11

G.o.d proceeds in threatening Israel for their ingrat.i.tude: yet he will not utterly destroy them.