Hosea 4–6

God Accuses Israel

⁴Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel,

for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or loyalty

and no knowledge of God in the land.^*

²Swearing, lying, and murder,

and stealing and adultery break out;

bloodshed follows bloodshed.

³Therefore the land mourns,

and all who live in it languish;

together with the wild animals

and the birds of the air,

even the fish of the sea are perishing.^*

⁴Yet let no one contend,

and let none accuse,

for with you is my contention, O priest.^s*

⁵You shall stumble by day;

the prophet also shall stumble with you by night,

and I will destroy your mother.^*

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!

Because you have rejected knowledge,

I reject you from being a priest to me;

and since you have forgotten the law of your God,

I also will forget your children.^*

⁷The more they increased,

the more they sinned against me;

they changed^t their glory into shame.^*

⁸They feed on the sin of my people;

they are greedy for their iniquity.

⁹And it shall be like people, like priest;

I will punish them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.^*

¹⁰They shall eat but not be satisfied;

they shall prostitute themselves but not multiply,

because they have forsaken the Lord

to devote themselves to^{* 11}prostitution.

The Idolatry of Israel

Wine and new wine

take away the understanding.^*

¹²My people consult a piece of wood,

and their divining rod gives them oracles.

For a spirit of prostitution has led them astray,

and they have prostituted themselves, forsaking their God.^*

¹³They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains

and make offerings upon the hills,

under oak, poplar, and terebinth

because their shade is good.

Therefore your daughters prostitute themselves,

and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.^*

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves

nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery,

for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes

and sacrifice with female attendants;

thus a people without understanding comes to ruin.^*

¹⁵Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel,

do not let Judah become guilty.

Do not enter into Gilgal

or go up to Beth-aven,

and do not swear, “As the Lord lives.”^*

¹⁶Like a stubborn heifer,

Israel is stubborn;

can the Lord now feed them

like a lamb in a broad pasture?^*

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols—

let him alone.

¹⁸When their drinking is ended, they indulge in sexual orgies;

they love lewdness more than their glory.^u*

¹⁹A wind has wrapped them^v in its wings,

and they shall be ashamed because of their altars.^w*

Impending Judgment on Israel and Judah

⁵Hear this, O priests!

Give heed, O house of Israel!

Listen, O house of the king!

For the judgment pertains to you,

for you have been a snare at Mizpah

and a net spread upon Tabor^*

²and a pit dug deep in Shittim,^x

but I will punish all of them.

³I know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from me,

for now, O Ephraim, you have prostituted yourself;

Israel is defiled.^*

⁴Their deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

For the spirit of prostitution is within them,

and they do not know the Lord.^*

⁵Israel’s pride testifies against him;

Ephraim^y stumbles in his guilt;

Judah also stumbles with them.^*

⁶With their flocks and herds they shall go

to seek the Lord,

but they will not find him;

he has withdrawn from them.^*

⁷They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord,

for they have borne illegitimate children.

Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields.^*

⁸Blow the horn in Gibeah,

the trumpet in Ramah.

Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;

look behind you, Benjamin!^*

⁹Ephraim shall become a desolation

in the day of punishment;

among the tribes of Israel

I declare what is sure.^*

¹⁰The princes of Judah have become

like those who remove the landmark;

on them I will pour out

my wrath like water.^*

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,

because he was determined to go after vanity.^z

¹²Therefore I am like maggots to Ephraim

and like rottenness to the house of Judah.^*

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness

and Judah his wound,

then Ephraim went to Assyria

and sent to the great king.^a

But he is not able to cure you

or heal your wound.^*

¹⁴For I will be like a lion to Ephraim

and like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I myself will tear and go away;

I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.^*

¹⁵I will return again to my place

until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.

In their distress they will beg my favor:^*

A Call to Repentance

⁶“Come, let us return to the Lord,

for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;

he has struck down, and he will bind us up.^*

²After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

³Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;

his appearing is as sure as the dawn;

he will come to us like the showers,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”^*

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

⁴What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes away early.^*

⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have killed them by the words of my mouth,

and my^b judgment goes forth as the light.^*

⁶For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.^*

⁷But at^c Adam they transgressed the covenant;

there they dealt faithlessly with me.

⁸Gilead is a city of evildoers,

tracked with blood.

⁹As robbers lie in wait^d for someone,

so the priests are banded together;^e

they murder on the road to Shechem;

they commit a monstrous crime.^*

¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;

Ephraim’s prostitution is there; Israel is defiled.^*

¹¹For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.

When I would restore the fortunes of my people,^*