st 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 God, 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 Assyrians.

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

9:8. 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.

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