Hosea 8–11

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.

CHAPTER 9

Days of Punishment Have Come

^1aDo not be glad, O Israel, ¹with rejoicing like the peoples!

For you have ^bplayed the harlot, ²forsaking your God.

You have loved harlots’ earnings on ³every threshing floor.

²Threshing floor and wine press will ^anot feed them,

And the new wine will deceive ¹them.

³They will not remain in ^athe land of Yahweh,

But Ephraim will return to ^bEgypt,

And in ^cAssyria they will eat ^dunclean food.

⁴They will not pour out drink offerings of ^awine to Yahweh;

^bTheir sacrifices will not please Him.

Their bread will ¹be like ²mourners’ bread;

All who eat of it will be ^cdefiled,

For their bread will be for ³themselves alone;

It will not enter the house of Yahweh.

^5aWhat will you do on the day of the appointed festival

And on the day of the ^bfeast of Yahweh?

⁶For behold, they will go because of destruction;

Egypt will gather them up; ^aMemphis will bury them.

Weeds will possess their desirable items of silver;

^bThorns will be in their tents.

⁷The days of ^apunishment have come;

The days of ^brecompense have come;

¹Let Israel know this!

The prophet is an ^cignorant fool,

The ²inspired man has ^dmadness,

Because of the abundance of your ^einiquity

And because your hostility has abounded.

⁸Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;

Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,

And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

⁹They have dug ^adeep ¹in corruption

As in the days of ^bGibeah;

He will ^cremember their iniquity;

He will punish their sins.

Grapes in the Wilderness

¹⁰I found Israel like ^agrapes in the wilderness;

I saw your fathers as the ^bearliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.

But they came to ^cBaal-peor and devoted themselves to ^1dshame,

And they became as ^edetestable as that which they loved.

¹¹As for Ephraim, their ^aglory will fly away like a bird—

No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!

¹²Though they bring up their children,

Yet I will bereave them ¹until not a man is left.

Surely, ^awoe to them indeed when I depart from them!

¹³Ephraim, as I have seen,

Is planted in a pasture like ^aTyre;

But Ephraim will bring out his children for killing.

¹⁴Give them, O Yahweh—what will You give?

Give them a ^1amiscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵All their evil is at ^aGilgal;

Indeed, I came to hate them there!

Because of the ^bevil of their deeds

I will drive them out of My house!

I will love them no more;

All their princes are ^crebels.

^16aEphraim is stricken; their root is dried up;

They will bear ^bno fruit.

Even though they bear children,

I will put to death the ^cdesirable ones of their womb.

¹⁷My God will despise them

Because they have ^anot listened to Him;

And they will be ^bthose who flee among the nations.

CHAPTER 10

You Have Sinned, O Israel

¹Israel is a ¹luxuriant ^avine;

He produces fruit for himself.

The more abundant his fruit,

The more altars he ^babounded;

The better his land,

The better ²he made the sacred ^cpillars.

²Their heart is ^1afaithless;

Now they must bear their ^bguilt.

²Yahweh will ^cbreak down their altars

And destroy their sacred pillars.

³Surely now they will say, “We have ^ano king,

For we do not fear Yahweh.

As for the king, what can he do for us?”

⁴They speak mere words;

¹With ^aworthless oaths they cut covenants;

And ^bjudgment flourishes like gall in the furrows of the field.

⁵The dweller of Samaria will fear

For the ^1acalf of ^bBeth-aven.

Indeed, its people will mourn for it,

And its ^cidolatrous priests ²will cry out over it,

Over its ^dglory, since it has gone into exile from them.

⁶The thing itself will be carried to ^aAssyria

As tribute to ^1bKing Jareb;

Ephraim will ^creceive shame,

And Israel will be ashamed of its ^down counsel.

⁷Samaria will be ^aruined with her king

Like a stick on the surface of the water.

⁸Also the ^ahigh places of Aven, the ^bsin of Israel, will be ¹eradicated;

^cThorn and thistle will grow on their altars;

Then they will ^dsay to the mountains,

“Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;

There they stand!

Will not the battle against the sons of injustice overtake them in Gibeah?

¹⁰When it is My ^adesire, I will ^1bchastise them;

And ^cthe peoples will be gathered against them

When they are bound for their double guilt.

The Trained Heifer

¹¹And Ephraim is a trained ^aheifer that loves to thresh,

But I will ^bcome over her fair neck with a yoke;

I will harness Ephraim;

Judah will plow; Jacob will harrow for himself.

^12aSow with a view to righteousness,

Reap in accordance with lovingkindness;

^bBreak up your fallow ground,

Indeed, it is time to ^cseek Yahweh

Until He ^dcomes and ^1erains righteousness on you.

¹³You have ^aplowed wickedness; you have reaped injustice;

You have eaten the fruit of ^bdeception.

Because you have trusted in your way, in your ^cabundant warriors,

¹⁴Therefore a rumbling will arise among your people,

And all your ^afortifications will be destroyed,

As Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle,

When ^bmothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

¹⁵Thus it will be done to you at Bethel because of your evil of evils.

At dawn the king of Israel will be completely ruined.

CHAPTER 11

The Beloved Son

¹When Israel was a youth I loved him,

And ^aout of Egypt I ^bcalled My son.

²The more ^1athey called them,

The more they went from ²them;

They kept ^bsacrificing to the Baals

And ^cburning incense to graven images.

³Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk;

¹I ^atook them in My arms;

But they did not know that I ^bhealed them.

⁴I ^aled them with cords of a man, with bonds of love,

And ^bI became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws;

And I bent down and ^cfed them.

⁵¹They will not return to the land of Egypt;

But Assyria—he will be ²their king

Because they ^arefused to return to Me.

⁶And the ^asword will whirl against ¹their cities

And will consume ²their gate bars

And ^bdevour them because of their ^ccounsels.

⁷So My people are hung up on ^aturning from Me.

Though ¹they call ²them to the One on high,

None at all exalts Him.

^8aHow can I give you up, O Ephraim?

How can I surrender you, O Israel?

How can I give you over to be like ^bAdmah?

How can I make you like ^cZeboiim?

My heart is turned over within Me;

¹All My compassions are stirred.

⁹I will ^anot execute My burning anger;

I will not make Ephraim a ruin ^bagain.

For ^cI am God and not man, the ^dHoly One in your midst,

And I will not come in ¹wrath.

¹⁰They will ^awalk after Yahweh;

He will ^broar like a lion;

Indeed, He will roar,

And His sons will come ^ctrembling from the west.

¹¹They will come trembling like birds from ^aEgypt

And like ^bdoves from the land of ^cAssyria;

And I will ^dsettle them in their houses, declares Yahweh.

¹²¹Ephraim surrounds Me with ^2alies

And the house of Israel with deceit;

And Judah is also unruly against God,

Even against the Holy One who is faithful.