Hosea 8

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.