Ephraim hath multiplied altars--to sin; altars are his own--to sin. Were I to write for him by myriads My laws,_[555] _as those of a stranger would they be accounted. They slay burnt-offerings for Me and eat flesh._[556] _Jehovah hath no delight in them. Now must He remember their guilt and make visitation upon their sin. They--to Egypt--shall return_....[557] Back to their ancient servitude must they go, as formerly He said He would withdraw them to the wilderness.[558] 3. THE EFFECTS OF EXILE. HOSEA ix. 1-9. Hosea now turns to describe the effects of exile upon the social and religious habits of the people. It must break up at once the joy and the sacredness of their lives. Every pleasure will be removed, every taste offended. Indeed, even now, with their conscience of having deserted Jehovah, they cannot pretend to enjoy the feasts of the Ba'alim in the same hearty way as the heathen with whom they mix. But, whether or no, the time is near when nature-feasts and all other religious ceremonies--all that makes life glad and regular and solemn--shall be impossible. _Rejoice not, O Israel, to_ the pitch of _rapture like the heathen, for thou hast played the harlot from thy God; a harlot's hire hast thou loved on all threshing-floors._[559] _Threshing-floor and wine-vat shall ignore_[560] _them, and the new wine shall play them false. They shall not abide in the land of Jehovah, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat what is unclean. They shall not pour libations to Jehovah, nor prepare_[561] _for Him their sacrifices. Like the bread of sorrows shall their bread_[562] _be; all that eat of it shall be defiled:_ yea, _their bread shall be_ only _for their appetite; they shall not bring it_[563] _to the temple of Jehovah._ He cannot be worshipped off His own land. They will have to live like animals, divorced from religion, unable to hold communion with their God. _What shall ye do for days_[564] _of festival, or for a day of pilgrimage to Jehovah? For lo,_ they _shall be gone forth from destruction_,[565] the shock and invasion of their land, only _that Egypt may gather them in, Memphis give them sepulture, nettles inherit their jewels of silver, thorns_ come up _in their tents_. The threat of exile still wavers between Assyria and Egypt. And in Egypt Memphis is chosen as the destined grave of Israel; for even then her Pyramids and mausoleums were ancient and renowned, her vaults and sepulchres were countless and spacious. But what need is there to seek the future for Israel's doom, when already this is being fulfilled by the corruption of her spiritual leaders?