Hosea 8

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.

^2bIsrael will cry to Me,

‘My God, ^cwe know You!’

³Israel 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.

⁵Your ²calf ³is rejected, O Samaria!

My anger is aroused against them—

^eHow long until they attain to innocence?

⁶For 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.

⁸ⁱIsrael is swallowed up;

Now they are among the Gentiles

^jLike a vessel in which is no pleasure.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,

Like ^ka wild donkey alone by itself;

Ephraim ^lhas hired lovers.

¹⁰Yes, 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.

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

But they were considered a strange thing.

¹³For 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.”