Hosea 8

The Condemns Israel for Idol Worship

8The Lord says, “Sound the alarm! Enemies are swooping down on my land like eagles! My people have broken the covenant I made with them and have rebelled against my teaching. ²Even though they call me their God and claim that they are my people and that they know me, ³they have rejected what is good. Because of this their enemies will pursue them.

⁴“My people chose kings, but they did it on their own. They appointed leaders, but without my approval. They took their silver and gold and made idols—for their own destruction. ⁵I hate the gold bull worshipped by the people of the city of Samaria. I am furious with them. How long will it be before they give up their idolatry? ⁶An Israelite craftsman made the idol, and it is not a god at all! The gold bull worshipped in Samaria will be smashed to pieces! ⁷When they sow the wind, they will reap a storm! A field of corn that doesn’t ripen can never produce any bread. But even if it did, foreigners would eat it up. ⁸Israel has become like any other nation and is as useless as a broken pot. ⁹Stubborn as wild donkeys, the people of Israel go their own way. They have gone off to seek help from Assyria, and have paid other nations to protect them. ¹⁰But now I am going to gather them together and punish them. Soon they will writhe in pain, when the emperor of Assyria oppresses them.

¹¹“The more altars the people of Israel build for removing sin, the more places they have for sinning! ¹²I write down countless teachings for the people, but they reject them as strange and foreign. ¹³They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of the sacrifices.^u But I, the Lord, am not pleased with them, and now I will remember their sin and punish them for it; I will send them back to Egypt!

¹⁴“The people of Israel have built palaces, but they have forgotten their own Maker. The people of Judah have built fortified cities. But I will send fire that will burn down their palaces and their cities.”