Hosea 4:1–9:17
*aHear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel:
For aathe Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land,
Because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor bknowledge of God in the land.
2 cBy swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out,
And †blood toucheth blood.
3 Therefore dshall the land mourn,
And deevery one that dwelleth therein fshall languish,
eghWith the beasts of the field, and ehwith the fowls of heaven;
Yea, ehthe fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
4 Yet ilet no man strive, nor reprove another:
For kthy people are as lthey that strive with the priest.
5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day,
And the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night,
And I will †destroy mthy mother.
6 My people are †destroyed nfor lack of knowledge:
Because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee, that othou shalt be no priest to me:
Seeing pthou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy children.
7 qAs they were increased, so they sinned against me:
rTherefore will I change their glory into shame.
8 They seat up the sin of my people,
And they †tset their heart on their iniquity.
9 uAnd there shall be, ulike people, like priest:
And vI will †punish them for their ways,
And v†reward them their doings.
10 For wthey shall eat, and not have enough:
They shall commit whoredom, and shall not xincrease:
Because they have left off to take heed to the Lord.
11 yWhoredom and yzwine and anew wine btake away the heart.
12 My people cask counsel at their dstocks,
And etheir staff declareth unto them:
For fthe spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err,
And they have gone a whoring from under their God.
13 gThey sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains,
And burn incense upon the hills,
Under hoaks and ipoplars and kelms,
Because the shadow thereof is good:
Therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom,
And lyour spouses shall commit adultery.
14 ||I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom,
Nor your spouses when they commit adultery:
For themselves mare separated with whores,
And they sacrifice with harlots:
Therefore nthe people that doth not understand shall ||fall.
15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot,
Yet let not Judah nnoffend;
And come not ye unto opGilgal,
Neither go ye up to pqBeth-aven,
rNor swear, The Lord liveth.
16 For Israel sslideth back tas a backsliding heifer:
Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
17 uEphraim is joined to idols:
vLet him alone.
18 Their drink †is sour: they have committed whoredom continually:
wHer †rulers with shame do love, xGive ye.
19 yThe wind hath bound her up in zher wings,
And athey shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
5 aHear ye this, O priests;
And hearken, ye house of Israel;
And give ye ear, O house of the king;
For judgment is toward you,
Because bye have been ca snare on dMizpah,
And ea net spread upon fTabor.
2 And gthe revolters hare profound to make slaughter,
||Though I have been †a rebuker of them all.
3 iI know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me:
For now, kO Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and kIsrael is defiled.
4 †||They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God:
For lthe spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them,
And they have not known the Lord.
5 And mthe pride of Israel doth testify nto his face:
Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity;
Judah also shall fall with them.
6 They shall go owith their flocks and with their herds pto seek the Lord;
pBut they shall not find him; pphe hath withdrawn himself from them.
7 They have qdealt treacherously against the Lord:
For they have begotten strange children:
Now shall ra month devour them with their portions.
8 sBlow ye tthe cornet in uGibeah,
zAfter thee, O Benjamin.
9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke:
Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.
10 The princes of Judah were like athem that remove the bound:
Therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
11 Ephraim is boppressed and bbroken in judgment,
Because he willingly walked after cthe commandment.
12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as dea moth,
And to the house of Judah as ||drottenness.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,
And Judah saw his fwound,
Then went Ephraim gto the Assyrian,
Yet could he not heal you,
Nor cure you of your fwound.
14 For kI will be unto Ephraim as la lion,
And as a young lion to the house of Judah:
mI, even I, will tear and go away;
I will take away, and mnone shall rescue him.
15 I will go and return to my place,
†Till nthey acknowledge their offence, and seek my face:
oIn their affliction they will pseek me early.
6 Come, and alet us return unto the Lord:
For bhe hath ctorn, and bdhe will heal us;
He hath smitten, and ehe will bind us up.
2 After two days will fhe revive us:
gIn the third day he will raise us up,
And we shall live in his sight.
3 hThen shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord:
iHis going forth is prepared jas the morning;
And khe shall come unto us as the rain,
As lmthe latter and lformer rain unto the earth.
4 nO Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?
nO Judah, what shall I do unto thee?
For your ||goodness is oas a morning cloud,
oAnd as the early dew it goeth away.
5 Therefore have I hewed them pby the prophets;
I have slain them qby the words of my mouth:
||And thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
6 For rI desired mercy, and rsnot sacrifice;
And tthe knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they ||like men uhave transgressed the covenant:
There vhave they dealt treacherously against me.
8 wGilead is a city of them that work iniquity,
And is ||polluted with blood.
9 And as ytroops of robbers wait for a man,
zSo athe company of priests murder in the way †by consent:
10 I have seen ean horrible thing in the house of Israel:
fThere is the whoredom of Ephraim, fIsrael is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah, ghe hath set an harvest for thee,
hWhen I returned the captivity of my people.
7 When I would have healed Israel,
Then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the †awickedness of bSamaria:
For they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in,
And cthe troop of robbers †dspoileth without.
2 And they †consider not in their hearts
That I remember all their awickedness:
Now etheir own doings have beset them about;
They are fbefore my face.
3 gThey make the king glad with their awickedness,
And the princes gwith their lies.
4 hThey are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker,
||Who ceaseth ||from raising after he hath ikneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
5 In the day kof our king the princes have made him sick ||with lbottles of wine;
He stretched out his hand with scorners.
6 For they have ||made ready their heart olike an oven, whiles mthey lie in wait:
nTheir baker sleepeth all the night;
In nothe morning it burneth as a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven,
And have devoured their judges;
There is rnone among them that calleth unto me.
8 Ephraim, she hath mixed himself among the people;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 tStrangers have devoured his strength, uand he knoweth it not:
Yea, gray hairs are †here and there upon him, uyet he knoweth not.
10 And vthe pride of Israel testifieth to his face:
And wthey do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.
11 xEphraim also is like a ysilly dove without heart:
xzaThey call to Egypt, abthey go to Assyria.
12 When they shall go, cI will spread my net upon them;
I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven;
dI will chastise them, eas their congregation hath heard.
13 Woe unto them! for they have fled from me:
†fDestruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me:
Though gI have redeemed them, yet they have hspoken lies against me.
14 And ithey have not cried unto me with their heart,
When they howled jupon their beds:
They assemble themselves for corn and kwine,
And they rebel against me.
15 Though I ||have bound and lstrengthened their arms,
Yet do they imagine mischief against me.
16 They return, but not to mthe most High:
They are nlike a deceitful bow:
Their princes shall fall by the sword ofor the rage of their tongue:
This shall be their derision pin the land of Egypt.
8 *Set athe trumpet to †thy mouth.
He shall come bas an eagle against the house of the Lord,
Because cthey have transgressed my covenant,
And trespassed against my law.
2 Israel shall cry unto me, dMy God, we know thee.
3 Israel jhath cast off the thing that is good:
The enemy shall pursue him.
4 eThey have set up kings, fbut not by me:
They have made princes, and I knew it not:
Of gtheir silver and their gold have they made them idols,
That they may be cut off.
5 hThy calf, iO Samaria, jhath cast thee off;
Mine anger is kindled against them:
kHow long will it be ere they attain to linnocency?
6 For from Israel was it also:
The workman made it; therefore it is not God:
But hthe calf of iSamaria llshall be broken in pieces.
7 For mthey have sown the wind, and mthey shall reap the whirlwind:
It hath no ||stalk: the bud shall yield no meal:
If so be it yield, nthe strangers shall swallow it up.
8 oIsrael is swallowed up:
Now shall they be among the Gentiles as pa vessel wherein is no pleasure.
9 *For qthey are gone up to Assyria, qqa wild ass ralone by himself:
10 Yea, though sthey have hired among the nations, now twill I gather them,
And they shall ||sorrow ||a little for the burden of uthe king of princes.
11 Because Ephraim vhath made many altars to sin,
Altars shall be unto him to sin.
12 wI have written to him xthe great things of my law,
But they were counted as a strange thing.
13 y||They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it;
But zthe Lord accepteth them not;
Now abwill he remember their iniquity, and avisit their sins:
cThey shall return to Egypt.
14 For dIsrael hath forgotten ehis Maker, and fbuildeth temples;
And Judah hath multiplied fenced cities:
But gI will send a fire upon his cities,
And git shall devour the palaces thereof.
9 aRejoice …