Hosea 7:1–16
xwhen I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the evil deeds of ySamaria,
for zthey deal falsely;
the thief breaks in,
and the bandits raid outside.
that aI remember all their evil.
Now btheir deeds surround them;
cthey are before my face.
3 By their evil dthey make dthe king glad,
and the princes by their treachery.
4 eThey are all adulterers;
they are like a heated oven
whose baker ceases to stir the fire,
from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened.
5 On the day of four king, the princes
became sick with the heat of wine;
he stretched out his hand with mockers.
6 For with hearts like an oven gthey approach their intrigue;
all night their anger smolders;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot as an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All htheir kings ihave fallen,
and none of them calls upon me.
8 Ephraim jmixes himself with the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 kStrangers devour his strength,
and lhe knows it not;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
and lhe knows it not.
10 mThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;1
nyet they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek him, for all this.
osilly and without sense,
calling to pEgypt, going to qAssyria.
12 As they go, rI will spread over them my net;
I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;
sI will discipline them taccording to the report made to their congregation.
13 uWoe to them, for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
vI would redeem them,
but wthey speak lies against me.
14 xThey do not cry to me from the heart,
but ythey wail upon their beds;
for grain and wine they gash themselves;
they rebel against me.
15 Although zI trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise evil against me.
16 They areturn, but not upward;2
they are blike a treacherous bow;
their princes shall fall by the sword
because of cthe insolence of their tongue.
This shall be their derision din the land of Egypt.