Hosea 7–8

7When I heal Israel,

Israel’s sin will go away,

and so will Samaria’s evil.

“They cheat a lot!

Thieves break into houses,

and robbers are in the streets.

²It never enters their minds

that I remember all their evil deeds.

The bad things they do are all around them;

they are right in front of me.

Israel’s Evil Kings

³“They make the king happy with their wickedness;

their rulers are glad with their lies.

⁴But all of them are traitors.

They are like an oven heated by a baker.

While he mixes the dough,

he does not need to stir up the fire.

⁵The kings get so drunk they get sick every day.

The rulers become crazy with wine;

they make agreements with those who do not know the true God.

⁶They burn like an oven;

their hearts burn inside them.

All night long their anger is low,

but when morning comes, it becomes a roaring fire.

⁷All these people are as hot as an oven;

they burn up their rulers.

All their kings fall,

and no one calls on me.

Israel and the Other Nations

⁸“Israel mixes with other nations;

he is like a pancake cooked only on one side.

⁹Foreign nations have eaten up his strength,

but he doesn’t know it.

Israel is weak and feeble, like an old man,

but he doesn’t know it.

¹⁰Israel’s pride will cause their defeat;

they will not turn back to the Lord their God

or look to him for help in all this.

¹¹Israel has become like a pigeon—

easy to fool and stupid.

First they call to Egypt for help.

Then they run to Assyria.

¹²When they go, I will catch them in a net,

I will bring them down like birds from the sky;

I will punish them countless times for their evil.

¹³How terrible for them because they left me!

They will be destroyed, because they turned against me.

I want to save them,

but they have spoken lies against me.

¹⁴They do not call to me from their hearts.

They just lie on their beds and cry.

They come together to ask for grain and new wine,

but they really turn away from me.

¹⁵Though I trained them and gave them strength,

they have made evil plans against me.

¹⁶They did not turn to the Most High God.

They are like a loose bow that can’t shoot.

Because their leaders brag about their strength,

they will be killed with swords,

and the people in Egypt

will laugh at them.

Israel Has Trusted Wrong Things

8“Put the trumpet to your lips and give the warning!

The enemy swoops down on the Lord’s people like an eagle.

The Israelites have broken my agreement

and have turned against my teachings.

²They cry out to me,

‘Our God, we in Israel know you!’

³But Israel has rejected what is good,

so the enemy will chase them.

⁴They chose their own kings

without asking my permission.

They chose their own leaders,

people I did not know.

They made their silver and gold into idols,

and for all this they will be destroyed.

⁵I hate the calf-shaped idol of Israel!

I am very angry with the people.

How long will they remain unclean?

⁶The idol is something a craftsman made;

it is not God.

Israel’s calf-shaped idol

will surely be smashed to pieces.

⁷“Israel’s foolish plans are like planting the wind,

but they will harvest a storm.

Like a stalk with no head of grain,

it produces nothing.

Even if it produced something,

other nations would eat it.

⁸Israel is eaten up;

the people are mixed among the other nations

and have become useless to me.

⁹Israel is like a wild donkey all by itself.

They have run to Assyria;

They have hired other nations to protect them.

¹⁰Although Israel is mixed among the nations,

I will gather them together.

They will become weaker and weaker

as they suffer under the great king of Assyria.

¹¹“Although Israel built more altars to remove sin,

they have become altars for sinning.

¹²I have written many teachings for them,

but they think the teachings are strange and foreign.

¹³The Israelites offer sacrifices to me as gifts

and eat the meat,

but the Lord is not pleased with them.

He remembers the evil they have done,

and he will punish them for their sins.

They will be slaves again as they were in Egypt.

¹⁴Israel has forgotten their Maker and has built palaces;

Judah has built many strong, walled cities.

But I will send fire on their cities

and destroy their strong buildings.”