Hosea 12–13

12The people of Ephraim look to others for help.

It’s like chasing the wind.

The wind they keep chasing

is hot and dry.

They tell more and more lies.

They are always hurting others.

They make a peace treaty with Assyria.

They send olive oil to Egypt to get help.

²The Lord is bringing charges against Judah.

He will punish Jacob’s people

because of how they act.

He’ll pay them back

for the evil things they’ve done.

³Even before Jacob was born,

he was holding on to his brother’s heel.

When he became a man,

he struggled with God.

⁴At Peniel he struggled with the angel and won.

He sobbed and begged for his blessing.

God also met with him at Bethel.

He talked with him there.

⁵He is the Lord God who rules over all.

He wants us to remember

that his name is The Lord.

⁶People of Jacob, you must return to your God.

You must hold on to love and do what is fair.

You must trust in your God always.

⁷You are like a trader who uses dishonest scales.

You love to cheat others.

⁸People of Ephraim, you brag,

“We are very rich.

We’ve become wealthy.

And no one can prove we sinned

to gain all of this wealth.”

⁹The Lord says,

“I am the Lord your God.

I brought you out of Egypt.

But I will make you live in tents again.

That is what you did when you celebrated

the Feast of Booths in the desert.

¹⁰I spoke to the prophets.

They saw many visions.

I gave you warnings through them.”

¹¹The people of Gilead are evil!

They aren’t worth anything!

Gilgal’s people sacrifice bulls to other gods.

Their altars will become like piles of stones

on a plowed field.

¹²Jacob ran away to the country of Aram.

There Israel served Laban to get a wife.

He took care of sheep to pay for her.

¹³The prophet Moses brought Israel up from Egypt.

The Lord used him to take care of them.

¹⁴But Ephraim’s people have made the Lord very angry.

Their Lord will hold them accountable for the blood they’ve spilled.

He’ll pay them back for the shameful things they’ve done.

The Lord Is Angry With Israel

13When the tribe of Ephraim spoke,

the other tribes trembled with fear.

Ephraim was honored in Israel.

But its people sinned by worshiping Baal.

So they were as good as dead.

²Now they sin more and more.

They use their silver

to make statues of gods for themselves.

The statues come from their own clever ideas.

Skilled workers make all of them.

The people pray to those gods.

They offer human sacrifices to them.

They kiss the gods that look like calves.

³So those people will vanish like the morning mist.

They will soon disappear like the early dew.

They will be like straw

that the wind blows around on a threshing floor.

They will be like smoke

that escapes through a window.

⁴The Lord says,

“People of Israel, I am the Lord your God.

I brought you out of Egypt.

You must not recognize any God but me.

You must not have any Savior except me.

⁵I took care of you in the desert.

It was a land of burning heat.

⁶I fed you until you were satisfied.

Then you became proud.

You forgot all about me.

⁷So I will leap on you like a lion.

I will hide and wait

beside the road like a leopard.

⁸I will attack you like a bear

that is robbed of her cubs.

I will rip you wide open.

Like a lion I will eat you up.

Like a wild animal I will tear you apart.

⁹“Israel, you will be destroyed.

I helped you. But you turned against me.

¹⁰Where is your king?

Wasn’t he supposed to save you?

Where are the rulers in all of your towns?

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

¹¹So I became angry and gave you a king.

Then I took him away from you.

¹²Ephraim, your guilt is piling up.

I am keeping a record of all of your sins.

¹³You will suffer pain like a woman having a baby.

You are like a foolish child.

It is time for you to be born.

But you refuse to come out of your mother’s body.

¹⁴“I will set you free from the power of the grave.

I will save you from death.

Death, where are your plagues?

Grave, where is your power to destroy?

“Ephraim, I will no longer pity you.

¹⁵Even though you are doing well among the other tribes,

trouble will come to you.

I will send a hot and dry wind from the east.

It will blow in from the desert.

Your springs will not have any water.

Your wells will dry up.

All of your treasures

will be taken out of your storerooms.

¹⁶People of Samaria, you must pay for your sins.

You have refused to obey me.

You will be killed with swords.

Your little children will be smashed on the ground.

Your pregnant women will be ripped wide open.”