Hosea 7–8

Chapter 7

Ephraim’s Iniquity

¹When I ^awould heal Israel,

The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,

And the evil deeds of Samaria,

For they deal ^bfalsely;

The thief enters in,

^cBandits raid outside,

²And they do not ¹consider in their hearts

That I ^aremember all their wickedness.

Now their ^bdeeds are all around them;

They are before My face.

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

And the princes with their ^clies.

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 approach 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 consume their ^arulers;

All their kings have fallen.

^bNone of them calls on Me.

⁸Ephraim ^amixes himself with the ¹nations;

Ephraim has become a cake not turned.

^9aStrangers devour his strength,

Yet he ^bdoes not know it;

Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,

Yet he does not know it.

¹⁰Though the ^apride of Israel testifies against him,

Yet ^bthey have not returned to the Lord their God,

Nor have they sought Him, for all this.

¹¹So ^aEphraim has become like a silly dove, ^bwithout ¹sense;

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 ¹proclamation to their assembly.

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

Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!

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

¹⁴And ^athey do not cry to Me from their heart

When they wail on their beds;

For the sake of grain and new wine they ^1bassemble themselves,

They ^cturn away from Me.

¹⁵Although I trained 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 ^2binsolence of their tongue.

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

Chapter 8

Israel Reaps the Whirlwind

^1aPut the trumpet to your ¹lips!

^bLike an eagle the enemy comes ^cagainst the house of the Lord,

Because they have ^dtransgressed My covenant

And rebelled 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 broken to ¹pieces.

⁷For ^athey sow the wind

And they reap the ^bwhirlwind.

The standing grain has no ¹heads;

It yields ^cno ²grain.

Should it yield, 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 regarded as a strange thing.

¹³As for My ^asacrificial gifts,

They ^bsacrifice the flesh and eat it,

But the Lord has taken no delight in them.

Now He will ^cremember their iniquity,

And ^dpunish them for their sins;

They will return to ^eEgypt.

¹⁴For 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.