Hosea 11:12–13:16

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.”