Hosea 10–14

10TH CHAPTER

Israel Is Like a Rotten Vine

¹The people of Israel are like vines that used to produce fruit. 

The more fruit they produced, 

the more altars they built. 

The more their land produced, 

the more stone markers they set up ⸤to honor other gods⸥. 

²They are hypocrites. Now they must take their punishment. 

God will tear down their altars and destroy their stone markers. 

³So they’ll say, 

“We have no king because we didn’t fear the Lord. 

Even if we had a king, he couldn’t do anything for us.” 

⁴They say many things. They lie when they take oaths, 

and they make promises they don’t intend to keep. 

That’s why lawsuits spring up 

like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field. 

⁵Those who live in Samaria fear the calf-shaped idol at Beth Aven. 

The people will mourn over it. 

The priests will cry loudly 

because its glory will be taken away into captivity. 

⁶The thing itself will be carried to Assyria 

as a present to the great king.^a

Ephraim will be disgraced. 

Israel will be ashamed because of its plans. 

⁷The king of Samaria will be carried away 

like a piece of wood on water. 

⁸The illegal worship sites of Aven will be destroyed. 

Israel sins there. 

Thorns and weeds will grow over those altars. 

People will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” 

and to the hills, “Fall on us!” 

⁹Israel, you have sinned ever since the incident at Gibeah. 

You never change. 

War will overtake the wicked people in Gibeah. 

¹⁰“I will punish them when I’m ready. 

Armies will gather to attack them. 

They will be punished for their many sins. 

Israel Is Like a Cow That Threshed Grain

¹¹“Ephraim is like a trained calf that loves to thresh^bgrain. 

I will put a yoke^con its beautiful neck. 

I will harness Ephraim. 

Judah must plow. 

Jacob must break up the ground. 

¹²“Break new ground. 

Plant righteousness, 

and harvest the fruit that your loyalty will produce for me.” 

It’s time to seek the Lord! 

When he comes, he will rain righteousness on you. 

¹³You have planted wickedness and harvested evil. 

You have eaten the fruit that your lies produced. 

You have trusted your own power and your many warriors. 

¹⁴So your army will hear the noise of battle. 

All your fortresses will be destroyed 

like the time Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in battle. 

Mothers and their children were smashed to death. 

¹⁵This is what will happen to you, Bethel, 

because you have done many wicked things. 

At daybreak, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed. 

11TH CHAPTER

Israel Is Like a Bad Son

¹“When Israel was a child, I loved him, 

and I called my son out of Egypt. 

²The more I called them,^athe farther they went away. 

They sacrificed to other gods—the Baals, 

and they burned incense to idols. 

³I was the one who taught the people of Ephraim to walk.^b

I took them by the hand. 

But they didn’t realize that I had healed them. 

⁴I led them with cords of human kindness, with ropes of love. 

I removed the yokes^cfrom their necks. 

I bent down and fed them. 

⁵“They will not return to Egypt. 

Instead, Assyria will rule them 

because they have refused to return to me. 

⁶War will sweep through their cities, 

demolish their city gates, 

and put an end to their plans. 

⁷My people are determined to turn away from me. 

Even if they call to the Most High, 

he will not pardon 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 treat you like Zeboim? 

I have changed my mind. 

I am deeply moved. 

⁹I will not act on my burning anger. 

I will not destroy Ephraim again. 

I am God, not a human. 

I am the Holy One among you, 

and I will not come to you in anger. 

¹⁰“My people will follow me when I roar like a lion. 

When I roar, my children will come trembling from the west. 

¹¹They will come trembling like birds from Egypt 

and like doves from Assyria. 

I will settle them in their own homes,” 

declares the Lord.^d

¹²“Ephraim surrounds me with lies. 

The nation of Israel surrounds me with deceit.” 

Judah rebels against God, against the Holy One who is faithful. 

12TH CHAPTER^a

The People of Israel Ignored What the Lord Had Done for Them

¹The people of Ephraim try to catch the wind 

and try to chase the east wind all day. 

They are very violent and destructive. 

They make treaties with Assyria and take olive oil to Egypt. 

²The Lord brings charges against Judah and punishes Jacob 

because of the way their people act. 

He will pay them back for what they have done. 

³Their ancestor Jacob held on to his brother’s heel 

while the two of them were in their mother’s womb. 

When Jacob became a man, he struggled with God. 

⁴He struggled with the Messenger and won. 

Jacob cried and pleaded with him. 

Jacob found him at Bethel, 

and he talked with him there. 

⁵The Lord is the God of Armies. 

The Lord is the name by which he is remembered. 

⁶Return to your God. 

Be loyal and fair, and always wait with hope for your God. 

⁷⸤The Lord says,⸥ “The merchants use dishonest scales. 

They love to cheat people. 

⁸The people of Ephraim say, ‘We’re rich. We’ve made a fortune. 

With all this wealth, no one will find us guilty of any sin.’ 

⁹I am the Lord your God. 

I brought you out of Egypt. 

I will make you live in tents again 

as you did during your appointed festivals. 

¹⁰I spoke to the prophets and gave them many visions. 

I taught lessons through the prophets.”^b

¹¹The people of Gilead are evil. 

They are worthless. 

They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal. 

But their altars will become like piles of rubble 

beside a plowed field. 

¹²Jacob fled to the country of Syria. 

Israel worked to get a wife; he took care of sheep to pay for her. 

¹³The Lord used a prophet to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. 

He used a prophet to take care of them. 

¹⁴The people of Ephraim made the Lord bitter. 

He will hold them guilty of murder. 

The Lord will pay them back for their insults. 

13TH CHAPTER

The People of Israel Will Be Punished for Their Idolatry

¹When the tribe of Ephraim spoke, people trembled. 

The people of Ephraim were important in Israel. 

Then they became guilty of worshiping Baal, 

so they must die. 

²They keep on sinning more and more. 

They make idols from silver for themselves. 

These idols are skillfully made. 

All of them are the work of craftsmen. 

People say this about the Israelites: “They offer human sacrifices 

and kiss calf-shaped idols.” 

³That is why they will be like fog in the morning 

and like morning dew that disappears quickly. 

They will be like straw blown away from threshing floors.^a

They will be like smoke rising from chimneys. 

⁴“I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt. 

You have known no god besides me. 

There is no savior except me. 

⁵I took care of you^bin the desert, in a dry land. 

⁶When I fed you, you were full. 

When you were full, you became arrogant. 

That is why you forgot me. 

⁷So I will be like a lion. 

Like a leopard I will wait by the road to ambush you. 

⁸Like a bear that has lost her cubs, I will attack you. 

I will rip you open. 

Like a lion I will devour you. 

Like a wild animal I will tear you apart. 

⁹You are destroying yourself, Israel. 

You are against me, your helper. 

¹⁰“Where, now, is your king, the one who is supposed to save you? 

Where in all your cities are your judges? 

You said, ‘Give us kings and officials!’ 

¹¹I gave you a king when I was angry, 

and I took him away when I was furious. 

¹²“Ephraim’s wickedness is on record. 

The record of the people’s sins is safely stored away. 

¹³They have the opportunity to live again, 

but they are not smart enough to take it. 

They are like a baby who is about to be born 

but won’t come out of its mother’s womb. 

¹⁴“I want to free them from the power of the grave. 

I want to reclaim them from death. 

Death, I want to be a plague to you. 

Grave, I want to destroy you.^c

I won’t even think of changing my plans.” 

¹⁵The people of Ephraim have become important among their relatives. 

However, the Lord’s scorching wind will come from the east. 

It will blow out of the desert. 

Then their springs will run dry, 

and their wells will dry up. 

The wind will destroy every precious thing in their storehouses.^d

¹⁶The people of Samaria are guilty as charged 

because they rebelled against their God. 

They will be killed in war, 

their children will be smashed to death, 

and their pregnant women will be ripped open. 

14TH CHAPTER^a

The Lord Offers to Forgive Israel

¹Israel, return to the Lord your God. 

You have stumbled because of your sins. 

²Return to the Lord, and say these things to him: 

“Forgive all our sins, and kindly receive us. 

Then we’ll praise you with our lips. 

³Assyria cannot save us. 

We won’t ride on horses anymore. 

We will never again say 

that the things our hands have made are our gods. 

You love orphans.” 

⁴⸤The Lord says,⸥ “I will cure them of their unfaithfulness. 

I will love them freely. 

I will no longer be angry with them. 

⁵I will be like dew to the people of Israel. 

They will blossom like flowers. 

They will be firmly rooted like cedars from Lebanon. 

⁶They will be like growing branches. 

They will be beautiful like olive trees. 

They will be fragrant like cedars from Lebanon. 

⁷They will live again in God’s shadow. 

They will grow like grain. 

They will blossom like grapevines. 

They will be as famous as the wines from Lebanon. 

⁸“The people of Ephraim will have nothing more to do with idols. 

I will answer them and take care of them. 

I am like a growing pine tree. 

Their fruit comes from me.” 

⁹Wise people will understand these things. 

A person with insight will recognize them. 

The Lord’s ways are right. 

Righteous people live by them. 

Rebellious people stumble over them.