Hosea 11–14

God’s Love for Israel

11“When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and I called my son out of Egypt.

²But when I called the people of Israel,

they went away from me.

They offered sacrifices to the Baals

and burned incense to the idols.

³It was I who taught Israel to walk,

and I took them by the arms,

but they did not understand

that I had healed them.

⁴I led them with cords of human kindness,

with ropes of love.

I lifted the yoke from their neck

and bent down and fed them.

⁵“The Israelites will become captives again, as they were in Egypt,

and Assyria will become their king,

because they refuse to turn back to God.

⁶War will sweep through their cities

and will destroy them

and kill them because of their wicked plans.

⁷My people have made up their minds

to turn away from me.

The prophets call them to turn to me,

but none of them honors me at all.

⁸“Israel, how can I give you up?

How can I give you away, Israel?

I don’t want to make you like Admah

or treat you like Zeboiim. ⁿ

My heart beats for you,

and my love for you stirs up my pity.

⁹I won’t punish you in my anger,

and I won’t destroy Israel again.

I am God and not a human;

I am the Holy One, and I am among you.

I will not come against you in anger.

¹⁰They will go after the Lord,

and he will roar like a lion.

When he roars,

his children will hurry to him from the west.

¹¹They will come swiftly

like birds from Egypt

and like doves from Assyria.

I will settle them again in their homes,”

says the Lord.

The Lord Is Against Israel

¹²Israel has surrounded me with lies;

the people have made evil plans.

And Judah turns against God,

the faithful Holy One.

12What Israel does is as useless as chasing the wind;

he chases the east wind all day.

They tell more and more lies

and do more and more violence.

They make agreements with Assyria,

and they send a gift of olive oil to Egypt.

²The Lord also has some things against Judah.

He will punish Israel for what they have done;

he will give them what they deserve.

³Their ancestor Jacob held on to his brother’s heel

while the two of them were being born.

When he grew to be a man,

he wrestled with God.

⁴When Jacob wrestled with the angel and won,

he cried and asked for his blessing.

Later, God met with him at Bethel

and spoke with him there.

⁵It was the Lord God All-Powerful;

the Lord is his great name.

⁶You must return to your God;

love him, do what is just,

and always trust in him as your God.

⁷The merchants use dishonest scales;

they like to cheat people.

⁸Israel said, “I am rich! I am someone with power!”

All their money will do them no good

because of the sins they have done.

⁹“But I am the Lord your God,

who brought you out of Egypt.

I will make you live in tents again

as you used to do on worship days.

¹⁰I spoke to the prophets

and gave them many visions;

through them, I taught my lessons to you.”

¹¹The people of Gilead are evil,

worth nothing.

Though people sacrifice bulls at Gilgal,

their altars will become like piles of stone

in a plowed field.

¹²Your ancestor Jacob fled to Northwest Mesopotamia

where he worked to get a wife;

he tended sheep to pay for her.

¹³Later the Lord used a prophet

to bring Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt;

he used a prophet

to take care of the Israelites.

¹⁴But the Israelites made the Lord angry when they killed other people,

and they deserve to die for their crimes.

The Lord will make them pay

for the disgraceful things they have done.

The Final Word Against Israel

13People used to fear the tribe of Ephraim;

they were important people in Israel.

But they sinned by worshiping Baal,

so they must die.

²But they still keep on sinning more and more.

They make idols of their silver,

idols that are cleverly made,

the work of a craftsman.

Yet the people of Israel say to each other,

“Kiss those calf idols and sacrifice to them.”

³So those people will be like the morning mist;

they will disappear like the morning dew.

They will be like chaff blown from the threshing floor,

like smoke going out a window.

⁴“I, the Lord, have been your God

since you were in the land of Egypt.

You should have known no other God except me.

I am the only one who saves.

⁵I cared for them in the desert

where it was hot and dry.

⁶I gave them food, and they became full and satisfied.

But then they became too proud and forgot me.

⁷That is why I will be like a lion to them,

like a leopard waiting by the road.

⁸I will attack like a bear robbed of her cubs,

ripping their bodies open.

I will devour them like a lion

and tear them apart like a wild animal.

⁹“Israel, I will destroy you.

Who will be your helper then?

¹⁰What good is your king?

Can he save you in any of your towns?

What good are your leaders?

You said, ‘Give us a king and leaders.’

¹¹So I gave you a king, but only in anger,

and I took him away in my great anger.

¹²The sins of Israel are on record,

stored away, waiting for punishment.

¹³The pain of birth will come for him,

but he is like a foolish baby

who won’t come out of its mother’s womb.

¹⁴Will I save them from the place of the dead?

Will I rescue them from death?

Where is your sickness, death?

Where is your pain, place of death?

I will show them no mercy.

¹⁵Israel is doing well among the nations,

but the Lord will send a wind from the east,

coming from the desert,

that will dry up his springs and wells of water.

He will destroy from their treasure houses everything of value.

¹⁶The nation of Israel will be ruined,

because it fought against God.

The people of Israel will die in war;

their children will be torn to pieces,

and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”

Israel Returns to God

14Israel, return to the Lord your God,

because your sins have made you fall.

²Come back to the Lord

and say these words to him:

“Take away all our sin

and kindly receive us,

and we will keep the promises we made to you.

³Assyria cannot save us,

nor will we trust in our horses.

We will not say again, ‘Our gods,’

to the things our hands have made.

You show mercy to orphans.”

⁴The Lord says,

“I will forgive them for leaving me

and will love them freely,

because I am not angry with them anymore.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel,

and they will blossom like a lily.

Like the cedar trees in Lebanon,

their roots will be firm.

⁶They will be like spreading branches,

like the beautiful olive trees

and the sweet-smelling cedars in Lebanon.

⁷The people of Israel will again live under my protection.

They will grow like the grain,

they will bloom like a vine,

and they will be as famous as the wine of Lebanon.

⁸Israel, have nothing to do with idols.

I, the Lord, am the one who answers your prayers and watches over you.

I am like a green pine tree;

your blessings come from me.”

⁹A wise person will know these things,

and an understanding person will take them to heart.

The Lord’s ways are right.

Good people live by following them,

but those who turn against God die because of them.