Hosea 7:1–9:17

7 “When I would have healed Israel,

Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,

And the wickedness of Samaria.

For athey have committed fraud;

A thief comes in;

A band of robbers 1takes spoil outside.

2 They 2do not consider in their hearts

That bI remember all their wickedness;

Now their own deeds have surrounded them;

They are before My face.

3 They make a cking glad with their wickedness,

And princes dwith their lies.

4 “They eare all adulterers.

Like an oven heated by a baker—

He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough,

Until it is leavened.

5 In the day of our king

Princes have made him sick, 3inflamed with fwine;

He stretched out his hand with scoffers.

6 They prepare their heart like an oven,

While they lie in wait;

4Their baker sleeps all night;

In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

7 They are all hot, like an oven,

And have devoured their judges;

All their kings have fallen.

gNone among them calls upon Me.

8 “Ephraim hhas mixed himself among the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake unturned.

9 iAliens have devoured his strength,

But he does not know it;

Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,

Yet he does not know it.

10 And the jpride of Israel testifies to his face,

But kthey do not return to the Lord their God,

Nor seek Him for all this.

Futile Reliance on the Nations

11 “Ephraim lalso is like a silly dove, without 5sense—

mThey call to Egypt,

They go to nAssyria.

12 Wherever they go, I will ospread My net on them;

I will bring them down like birds of the air;

I will chastise them

pAccording to what their congregation has heard.

13 “Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!

Destruction to them,

Because they have transgressed against Me!

Though qI redeemed them,

Yet they have spoken lies against Me.

14 rThey did not cry out to Me with their heart

When they wailed upon their beds.

“They 6assemble together for grain and new swine,

7They rebel against Me;

15 Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms,

Yet they devise evil against Me;

16 They return, but not 8to the Most High;

tThey are like a treacherous bow.

Their princes shall fall by the sword

For the ucursings of their tongue.

This shall be their derision vin the land of Egypt.

The Apostasy of Israel

8 “Set the 1trumpet to your mouth!

He shall come alike an eagle against the house of the Lord,

Because they have transgressed My covenant

And rebelled against My law.

2 bIsrael will cry to Me,

‘My God, cwe know You!’

3 Israel has rejected the good;

The enemy will pursue him.

4 “They dset up kings, but not by Me;

They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.

From their silver and gold

They made idols for themselves—

That they might be cut off.

5 Your 2calf 3is rejected, O Samaria!

My anger is aroused against them—

eHow long until they attain to innocence?

6 For from Israel is even this:

A fworkman made it, and it is not God;

But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

7 “They gsow the wind,

And reap the whirlwind.

The stalk has no bud;

It shall never produce meal.

If it should produce,

hAliens would swallow it up.

8 iIsrael is swallowed up;

Now they are among the Gentiles

jLike a vessel in which is no pleasure.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria,

Like ka wild donkey alone by itself;

Ephraim lhas hired lovers.

10 Yes, though they have hired among the nations,

Now mI will gather them;

And they shall 4sorrow a little,

Because of the 5burden of nthe king of princes.

11 “Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin,

They have become for him altars for sinning.

12 I have written for him othe great things of My law,

But they were considered a strange thing.

13 For the sacrifices of My offerings pthey sacrifice flesh and eat it,

qBut the Lord does not accept them.

rNow He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.

They shall return to Egypt.

14 “For sIsrael has forgotten this Maker,

And has built 6temples;

Judah also has multiplied ufortified cities;

But vI will send fire upon his cities,

And it shall devour his 7palaces.”

Judgment of Israel’s Sin

9 Do anot rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples,

For you have played the harlot against your God.

You have made love for bhire on every threshing floor.

2 The threshing floor and the winepress

Shall not feed them,

And the new wine shall fail in her.

3 They shall not dwell in cthe Lord’s land,

dBut Ephraim shall return to Egypt,

And eshall eat unclean things in Assyria.

4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord,

Nor fshall their gsacrifices be pleasing to Him.

It shall be like bread of mourners to them;

All who eat it shall be defiled.

For their bread shall be for their own life;

It shall not come into the house of the Lord.

5 What will you do in the appointed day,

And in the day of the feast of the Lord?

6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction.

Egypt shall gather them up;

Memphis shall bury them.

hNettles shall possess their valuables of silver;

Thorns shall be in their tents.

7 The idays of punishment have come;

The days of recompense have come.

Israel knows!

The prophet is a jfool,

kThe spiritual man is insane,

Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.

8 The lwatchman of Ephraim is with my God;

But the prophet is a 1fowler’s snare in all his ways—

Enmity in the house of his God.

9 mThey are deeply corrupted,

As in the days of nGibeah.

He will remember their iniquity;

He will punish their sins.

10 “I found Israel

Like grapes in the owilderness;

I saw your fathers

As the pfirstfruits on the fig tree in its first season.

But they went to qBaal Peor,

And 2separated themselves to that shame;

rThey became an abomination like the thing they loved.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird—

No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!

12 Though they bring up their children,

Yet I will bereave them to the last man.

Yes, swoe to them when I depart from them!

13 Just tas I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place,

So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”

14 Give them, O Lord—

What will You give?

Give them ua miscarrying womb

And dry breasts!

15 “All their wickedness is in vGilgal,

For there I hated them.

Because of the evil of their deeds

I will drive them from My house;

I will love them no more.

wAll their princes are rebellious.

16 Ephraim is xstricken,

Their root is dried up;

They shall bear no fruit.

Yes, were they to bear children,

I would kill the darlings of their womb.”

17 My God will ycast them away,

Because they did not obey Him;

And they shall be zwanderers among the nations.