Hosea

Hosea 7–12 WEB

^7:1When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside. ²They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face. ³They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. ⁴They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened. ⁵On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine. He joined his hand with mockers. ⁶For they have prepared their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their anger smolders all night. In the morning it burns as a flaming fire. ⁷They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to me. ⁸Ephraim mixes himself among the nations. Ephraim is a pancake not turned over. ⁹Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn’t realize it. Indeed, gray hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn’t realize it. ¹⁰The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven’t returned to the LORD their God, nor sought him, for all this. ¹¹“Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria. ¹²When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard. ¹³Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me. ¹⁴They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me. ¹⁵Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me. ¹⁶They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a faulty bow. Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

^8:1“Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over the LORD’s house, because they have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law. ²They cry to me, ‘My God, we, Israel, acknowledge you!’ ³Israel has cast off that which is good. The enemy will pursue him. ⁴They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I didn’t approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off. ⁵Let Samaria throw out his calf idol! My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity? ⁶For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. ⁷For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up. ⁸Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing. ⁹For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself. ¹⁰But although they sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them; and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones. ¹¹Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning. ¹²I wrote for him the many things of my law, but they were regarded as a strange thing. ¹³As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the LORD doesn’t accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt. ¹⁴For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and it will devour its fortresses.”

^9:1Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor. ²The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them, and the new wine will fail her. ³They won’t dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria. ⁴They won’t pour out wine offerings to the LORD, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into the LORD’s house. ⁵What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of the LORD? ⁶For, behold, when they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents. ⁷The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great. ⁸A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler’s snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God. ⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins. ¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved. ¹¹As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, no one with child, and no conception. ¹²Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them! ¹³I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer. ¹⁴Give them—LORD what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. ¹⁵“All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds, I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels. ¹⁶Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb.” ¹⁷My God will cast them away, because they didn’t listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.

^10:1Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars. As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones. ²Their heart is divided. Now they will be found guilty. He will demolish their altars. He will destroy their sacred stones. ³Surely now they will say, “We have no king; for we don’t fear the LORD; and the king, what can he do for us?” ⁴They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. ⁵The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven, for its people will mourn over it, along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it. ⁶It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king. Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel. ⁷Samaria and her king float away like a twig on the water. ⁸The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, “Cover us!” and the hills, “Fall on us!” ⁹“Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn’t overtake them in Gibeah. ¹⁰When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the nations will be gathered against them when they are bound to their two transgressions. ¹¹Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh, so I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck. I will set a rider on Ephraim. Judah will plow. Jacob will break his clods. ¹²Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and rains righteousness on you. ¹³You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men. ¹⁴Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle. The mother was dashed in pieces with her children. ¹⁵So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness. At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed.

^11:1“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. ²They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images. ³Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by their arms, but they didn’t know that I healed them. ⁴I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love; and I was to them like those who lift up the yoke on their necks; and I bent down to him and I fed him. ⁵“They won’t return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent. ⁶The sword will fall on their cities, and will destroy the bars of their gates, and will put an end to their plans. ⁷My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won’t exalt them. ⁸“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused. ⁹I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. ¹⁰They will walk after the LORD, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west. ¹¹They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses,” says the LORD. ¹²Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

^12:1Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt. ²The LORD also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him. ³In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he contended with God. ⁴Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us— ⁵even the LORD, the God of Armies. The LORD is his name of renown! ⁶Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God. ⁷A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud. ⁸Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich. I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won’t find in me any iniquity that is sin.” ⁹“But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast. ¹⁰I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables. ¹¹If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field. ¹²Jacob fled into the country of Aram. Israel served to get a wife. For a wife he tended flocks and herds. ¹³By a prophet the LORD brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. ¹⁴Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.