Hosea 7–8

Chapter 7

Israel’s Love for Wickedness

¹“I want to heal Israel, but its sins are too great.

Samaria is filled with liars.

Thieves are on the inside

and bandits on the outside!

²Its people don’t realize

that I am watching them.

Their sinful deeds are all around them,

and I see them all.

³“The people entertain the king with their wickedness,

and the princes laugh at their lies.

⁴They are all adulterers,

always aflame with lust.

They are like an oven that is kept hot

while the baker is kneading the dough.

⁵On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,

carousing with those who mock them.

⁶Their hearts are like an oven

blazing with intrigue.

Their plot smolders through the night,

and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.

⁷Burning like an oven,

they consume their leaders.

They kill their kings one after another,

and no one cries to me for help.

⁸“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,

making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!

⁹Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength,

but they don’t even know it.

Their hair is gray,

but they don’t realize they’re old and weak.

¹⁰Their arrogance testifies against them,

yet they don’t return to the Lord their God

or even try to find him.

¹¹“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves,

first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.

¹²But as they fly about,

I will throw my net over them

and bring them down like a bird from the sky.

I will punish them for all the evil they do.

¹³“What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me!

Let them die, for they have rebelled against me.

I wanted to redeem them,

but they have told lies about me.

¹⁴They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.

Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.

They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine,

and they turn away from me.

¹⁵I trained them and made them strong,

yet now they plot evil against me.

¹⁶They look everywhere except to the Most High.

They are as useless as a crooked bow.

Their leaders will be killed by their enemies

because of their insolence toward me.

Then the people of Egypt

will laugh at them.

Chapter 8

Israel Harvests the Whirlwind

¹“Sound the alarm!

The enemy descends like an eagle on the people of the Lord,

for they have broken my covenant

and revolted against my law.

²Now Israel pleads with me,

‘Help us, for you are our God!’

³But it is too late.

The people of Israel have rejected what is good,

and now their enemies will chase after them.

⁴The people have appointed kings without my consent,

and princes without my approval.

By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold,

they have brought about their own destruction.

⁵“O Samaria, I reject this calf—

this idol you have made.

My fury burns against you.

How long will you be incapable of innocence?

⁶This calf you worship, O Israel,

was crafted by your own hands!

It is not God!

Therefore, it must be smashed to bits.

⁷“They have planted the wind

and will harvest the whirlwind.

The stalks of grain wither

and produce nothing to eat.

And even if there is any grain,

foreigners will eat it.

⁸The people of Israel have been swallowed up;

they lie among the nations like an old discarded pot.

⁹Like a wild donkey looking for a mate,

they have gone up to Assyria.

The people of Israel have sold themselves—

sold themselves to many lovers.

¹⁰But though they have sold themselves to many allies,

I will now gather them together for judgment.

Then they will writhe

under the burden of the great king.

¹¹“Israel has built many altars to take away sin,

but these very altars became places for sinning!

¹²Even though I gave them all my laws,

they act as if those laws don’t apply to them.

¹³The people love to offer sacrifices to me,

feasting on the meat,

but I do not accept their sacrifices.

I will hold my people accountable for their sins,

and I will punish them.

They will return to Egypt.

¹⁴Israel has forgotten its Maker and built great palaces,

and Judah has fortified its cities.

Therefore, I will send down fire on their cities

and will burn up their fortresses.”