Hosea 8

Israel Rejects the Good

8Put to your lips the trumpet

like a vulture over the house of Yahweh,

because they have broken my covenant^a

and rebelled against my law.

²They cry out to me,

“My God! We, Israel, know you!”

³Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy will pursue him.

⁴They appointed kings, but not through me;

they made officials, but without my knowledge.

With their silver and gold

they made idols for themselves

for their^b own destruction.^c

⁵Your calf is rejected,^d O Samaria;

my anger burns against them.

How long^e will they be incapable of innocence?

⁶Because it is from Israel,

an artisan made it,

it is not a god;

for the calf of Samaria

will be broken to pieces.

⁷Because they sow the wind,

they will reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain does not have heads;^f

it will not yield flour.

And if it would yield,

strangers would devour it.

⁸Israel is swallowed up;

now they are among the nations,

like an object that no one desires.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,

a wild donkey alone to itself;

Ephraim has sold itself for lovers.

¹⁰Even though they have sold themselves to the nations,

now I will gather them.

They will soon writhe

from the burden of kings^g and princes.

¹¹When Ephraim multiplied altars

to expiate sins,

they became to him altars to sin on.

¹²I write for him myriads of my instruction;^h

they are regarded as a strange thing.

¹³They offer sacrifices of my choiceⁱ

and they eat flesh;

Yahweh does not accept them.

Now he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

they will return to Egypt.

¹⁴Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

but I will send fire on his cities

and it will devour her strongholds.