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Hosea 9

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1 Be· not ·glad, O Israel, unto rejoicing as the peoples; for thou hast committed·​·harlotry from thy God; thou hast loved meretricious* hire on every threshing·​·floor of grain.

2 The threshing·​·floor and the winepress shall not pasture them, and the must* shall deny her.

3 They shall not dwell in Jehovah’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

4 They shall not pour·​·out wine to Jehovah, nor shall they be·​·agreeable to Him; their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of sorrows; all that eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread for their soul shall not come·​·into the house of Jehovah.

5 What will you do in the solemn day, and in the day of the festival of Jehovah?

6 For, behold, they are gone away because of devastation; Egypt shall bring· them ·together, Memphis shall bury them: their silver shall be desired, kimmos* shall possess them: the thorny·​·shrub shall be in their tents.

7 The days of the visitation have come, the days of the repayment have come; Israel shall know; stupid is the prophet, the man of the spirit is mad, on·​·account·​·of the multitude of thine iniquity, and much hatred.

8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; the prophet is like a trap of a fowler in all his ways, hatred in the house of his God.

9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their iniquity, He will visit their sins.

10 I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first·​·fruit in the fig·​·tree in her beginning; but they came to Baal-peor, and separated themselves to that shame; and their detestable things were according·​·to their love.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a fowl, from the giving·​·birth, and from the belly, and from the conception.

12 For though they cause their sons to grow·​·up, yet I will make them bereaved of man; for there is also woe to them when I turn·​·aside from them!

13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a home; but Ephraim shall bring·​·forth his sons to the killer.

14 Give them, O Jehovah; what wilt Thou Give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

15 All their evil is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: on·​·account·​·of the evil of their actions I will drive· them ·out from My house, I will love them not again; all their princes are defiant.

16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried·​·up, they shall not make fruit; even though they give·​·birth, yet will I put·​·to·​·death the desires of their belly.

17 My God will reject them, because they did not hearken unto Him; and they shall be fugitives among the nations.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Egypt

  
The mastaba of the official and priest Fetekti. Fifth Dynasty. Abusir necropolis, Egypt, Photo by Karl Richard Lepsius

In the Bible, Egypt represents knowledge and the love of knowledge. In a good sense that means knowledge of truth from the Lord through the Bible, but in a natural sense it simply means earthly knowledge to be stored up and possessed. And even knowledge from the Bible is not always good: If we learn them with the goal of making them useful, then they are filled with angelic ideas. But they lack purpose when they are learned only for the sake of knowing things or for the reputation of being learned. So Egypt is a place you go to learn things, but to become heavenly you have to escape the sterile "knowing" and journey to the land of Canaan, where the knowledge is filled with the internal desire for good. It's interesting that when Egypt was ruled by Joseph, it was a haven for his father and brothers. This shows that when a person's internal mind rules in the land of learning, they can learn much that is useful. But eventually a pharaoh arose that didn't know Joseph, and the Children of Israel were enslaved. The pharaoh represents the external mind; when it is in charge the excitement and self-congratulation of knowing can reduce the internal mind to a type of slavery. The mind - like the Children of Israel - ends up making bricks, or man-made falsities from external appearances.