Hosea 7–8

CHAPTER 7

¹when I ^awould heal Israel,

Then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,

And the evil deeds of Samaria,

For they work ^bfalsehood;

The thief enters in;

^cRaiders ¹ransack outside,

²And they do not say to their hearts

That I ^aremember all their evil.

Now their ^bdeeds are all around them;

They are before My face.

^3aWith their evil they make the ^bking glad,

And the princes with their ^cdeceptions.

⁴They are ^aall adulterers,

Like an oven heated by the baker

Who ceases to stir up the fire

From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

⁵On the ¹day of our king, the princes ^abecame sick with the heat of wine;

He stretched out his hand with ^bscoffers,

⁶For their hearts are like an ^aoven

As they draw near in their ¹plotting;

Their ²anger ³smolders all night;

In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot like an oven,

And they devour their ^ajudges;

All their kings have fallen.

^bNone of them calls on Me.

⁸Ephraim ^amixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim has become a cake not turned.

^9aStrangers devour his power,

Yet he ^bdoes not know it;

Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,

Yet he does not know it.

¹⁰So the ^apride of Israel answers against him,

Yet ^bthey have not returned to Yahweh their God,

Nor have they sought Him, for all this.

¹¹So ^aEphraim has become like a silly dove, ^bwithout a heart of wisdom;

They call to ^cEgypt; they go to ^dAssyria.

¹²When they go, I will ^aspread My net over them;

I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.

I will ^bchastise them in accordance with the report to their congregation.

^13aWoe to them, for they have ^bfled from Me!

Destruction is theirs, for they have transgressed against Me!

And I ^cwould redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.

¹⁴And ^athey do not cry out to Me in their heart

When they wail on their beds;

For the sake of grain and new wine they ^1bgather together as sojourners;

They ^cdepart from Me.

¹⁵Although I disciplined and strengthened their arms,

Yet they ^adevise evil against Me.

¹⁶They turn, but not ¹upward;

They are like a ^adeceitful bow;

Their princes will fall by the sword

Because of the ^2bindignation of their tongue.

This will be their ^cscoffing in the land of Egypt.

CHAPTER 8

Israel Reaps the Whirlwind

^1aPut the trumpet to your ¹mouth!

^bLike an eagle the enemy comes ^cagainst the house of Yahweh

Because they have ^dtrespassed against My covenant

And transgressed against My ^elaw.

^2aThey cry out to Me,

“My God, ^bwe of Israel know You!”

³Israel has rejected the good;

The enemy will pursue him.

^4aThey have set up kings, but not by Me;

They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.

With their ^bsilver and gold they have made idols for themselves,

That ¹they might be cut off.

⁵¹He has rejected your ^acalf, O Samaria, saying,

“My anger burns against them!”

How long will they be incapable of ^binnocence?

⁶For from Israel is even this!

A ^acraftsman made it, so it is not God;

Surely the calf of Samaria will be smashed to splinters.

⁷For ^athey sow the wind,

And they reap the ^bwhirlwind.

The standing grain has no growth;

It makes ^cno flour.

Should it make anything, strangers would swallow it up.

⁸Israel is ^aswallowed up;

They are now among the nations

Like a ^bvessel in which no one delights.

⁹For they have gone up to ^aAssyria

Like ^ba wild donkey all alone;

Ephraim has ^chired ¹lovers.

¹⁰Even though they hire allies among the nations,

Now I will ^agather them up;

And they will begin ^bto ¹diminish

Because of the burden of the ^cking of princes.

¹¹Since Ephraim has ^amultiplied altars for sin,

They have become altars of sinning for him.

¹²Though ^aI wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My ^blaw,

They are counted as a strange thing.

¹³As for My ^asacrificial gifts,

They ^bsacrifice the flesh and eat it,

But Yahweh has not accepted them.

Now He will ^cremember their iniquity

And ^dpunish them for their sins;

They will return to ^eEgypt.

¹⁴So Israel has ^aforgotten his Maker and ^bbuilt palaces;

And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,

But I will send a ^cfire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.