Hosea 11:11–14:9

¹¹Like a flock of birds, they will come from Egypt.

Trembling like doves, they will return from Assyria.

And I will bring them home again,”

says the Lord.

Charges against Israel and Judah

¹² Israel surrounds me with lies and deceit,

but Judah still obeys God

and is faithful to the Holy One.

Chapter 12

¹ The people of Israel feed on the wind;

they chase after the east wind all day long.

They pile up lies and violence;

they are making an alliance with Assyria

while sending olive oil to buy support from Egypt.

²Now the Lord is bringing charges against Judah.

He is about to punish Jacob for all his deceitful ways,

and pay him back for all he has done.

³Even in the womb,

Jacob struggled with his brother;

when he became a man,

he even fought with God.

⁴Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won.

He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him.

There at Bethel he met God face to face,

and God spoke to him—

⁵the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,

the Lord is his name!

⁶So now, come back to your God.

Act with love and justice,

and always depend on him.

⁷But no, the people are like crafty merchants

selling from dishonest scales—

they love to cheat.

⁸Israel boasts, “I am rich!

I’ve made a fortune all by myself!

No one has caught me cheating!

My record is spotless!”

⁹“But I am the Lord your God,

who rescued you from slavery in Egypt.

And I will make you live in tents again,

as you do each year at the Festival of Shelters.

¹⁰I sent my prophets to warn you

with many visions and parables.”

¹¹But the people of Gilead are worthless

because of their idol worship.

And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls;

their altars are lined up like the heaps of stone

along the edges of a plowed field.

¹²Jacob fled to the land of Aram,

and there he earned a wife by tending sheep.

¹³Then by a prophet

the Lord brought Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt;

and by that prophet

they were protected.

¹⁴But the people of Israel

have bitterly provoked the Lord,

so their Lord will now sentence them to death

in payment for their sins.

Chapter 13

The Lord’s Anger against Israel

¹When the tribe of Ephraim spoke,

the people shook with fear,

for that tribe was important in Israel.

But the people of Ephraim sinned by worshiping Baal

and thus sealed their destruction.

²Now they continue to sin by making silver idols,

images shaped skillfully with human hands.

“Sacrifice to these,” they cry,

“and kiss the calf idols!”

³Therefore, they will disappear like the morning mist,

like dew in the morning sun,

like chaff blown by the wind,

like smoke from a chimney.

⁴“I have been the Lord your God

ever since I brought you out of Egypt.

You must acknowledge no God but me,

for there is no other savior.

⁵I took care of you in the wilderness,

in that dry and thirsty land.

⁶But when you had eaten and were satisfied,

you became proud and forgot me.

⁷So now I will attack you like a lion,

like a leopard that lurks along the road.

⁸Like a bear whose cubs have been taken away,

I will tear out your heart.

I will devour you like a hungry lioness

and mangle you like a wild animal.

⁹“You are about to be destroyed, O Israel—

yes, by me, your only helper.

¹⁰Now where is your king?

Let him save you!

Where are all the leaders of the land,

the king and the officials you demanded of me?

¹¹In my anger I gave you kings,

and in my fury I took them away.

¹²“Ephraim’s guilt has been collected,

and his sin has been stored up for punishment.

¹³Pain has come to the people

like the pain of childbirth,

but they are like a child

who resists being born.

The moment of birth has arrived,

but they stay in the womb!

¹⁴“Should I ransom them from the grave?

Should I redeem them from death?

O death, bring on your terrors!

O grave, bring on your plagues!

For I will not take pity on them.

¹⁵Ephraim was the most fruitful of all his brothers,

but the east wind—a blast from the Lord—

will arise in the desert.

All their flowing springs will run dry,

and all their wells will disappear.

Every precious thing they own

will be plundered and carried away.

¹⁶ The people of Samaria

must bear the consequences of their guilt

because they rebelled against their God.

They will be killed by an invading army,

their little ones dashed to death against the ground,

their pregnant women ripped open by swords.”

Chapter 14

Healing for the Repentant

¹ Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sins have brought you down.

²Bring your confessions, and return to the Lord.

Say to him,

“Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us,

so that we may offer you our praises.

³Assyria cannot save us,

nor can our warhorses.

Never again will we say to the idols we have made,

‘You are our gods.’

No, in you alone

do the orphans find mercy.”

⁴The Lord says,

“Then I will heal you of your faithlessness;

my love will know no bounds,

for my anger will be gone forever.

⁵I will be to Israel

like a refreshing dew from heaven.

Israel will blossom like the lily;

it will send roots deep into the soil

like the cedars in Lebanon.

⁶Its branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees,

as fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon.

⁷My people will again live under my shade.

They will flourish like grain and blossom like grapevines.

They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon.

⁸“O Israel, stay away from idols!

I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you.

I am like a tree that is always green;

all your fruit comes from me.”

⁹Let those who are wise understand these things.

Let those with discernment listen carefully.

The paths of the Lord are true and right,

and righteous people live by walking in them.

But in those paths sinners stumble and fall.