Hosea 8–12

Israel’s Apostasy

⁸Set the trumpet to your lips!

One like a vulture^j is over the house of the Lord,

because they have broken my covenant

and transgressed my law.^*

²They cry to me,

“My God, we know you!”^k*

³Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴They made kings but not through me;

they set up princes but without my knowledge.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.^*

⁵Your calf is rejected, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of innocence?^*

⁶For it is from Israel,

an artisan made it;

it is not God.

The calf of Samaria

shall be broken to pieces.^*

⁷For they sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no meal;

if it were to yield,

foreigners would devour it.^*

⁸Israel is swallowed up;

now they are among the nations

as a useless vessel.^*

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,

a wild ass wandering alone;

Ephraim has bargained for lovers.^*

¹⁰Though they bargain with the nations,

I will now gather them up.

They shall soon writhe

under the burden of kings and princes.^*

¹¹When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sin,

they became to him altars for sinning.

¹²Though I write for him the multitude of my instructions,

they are regarded as a strange thing.^*

¹³Though they offer choice sacrifices,^l

though they eat flesh,

the Lord does not accept them.

Now he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

they shall return to Egypt.^*

¹⁴Israel has forgotten his Maker

and built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities,

but I will send a fire upon his cities,

and it shall devour his strongholds.^*

Punishment for Israel’s Sin

⁹Do not rejoice, O Israel!

Do not exult^m as other nations do,

for you have prostituted yourself, departing from your God.

You have loved a prostitute’s pay

on all threshing floors.^*

²Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,

and the new wine shall fail them.^*

³They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,

but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,

and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food.^*

⁴They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,

and their sacrifices shall not please him.

Such sacrifices shall be like mourners’ bread;

all who eat of it shall be defiled,

for their bread shall be for their hunger only;

it shall not come to the house of the Lord.^*

⁵What will you do on the day of appointed festival

and on the day of the festival of the Lord?^*

⁶For even if they escape destruction,

Egypt shall gather them;

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;ⁿ

thorns shall be in their tents.^*

⁷The days of punishment have come;

the days of recompense have come.

Israel will cry out,^o

“The prophet is a fool;

the man of the spirit is mad!”

Because of your great iniquity,

your hostility is great.^*

⁸The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim,

yet a hunter’s snare is on all his ways

and hostility in the house of his God.^*

⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves

as in the days of Gibeah;

he will remember their iniquity;

he will punish their sins.^*

¹⁰Like grapes in the wilderness,

I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree,

in its first season,

I saw your ancestors.

But they came to Baal-peor

and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame

and became detestable like the thing they loved.^*

¹¹Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!^*

¹²Even if they bring up children,

I will bereave them until no one is left.

Woe to them indeed

when I depart from them!^*

¹³Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow,^p

but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter.^*

¹⁴Give them, O Lord—

what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

¹⁵Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal;

there I came to hate them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more;

all their officials are rebels.^*

¹⁶Ephraim is stricken,

their root is dried up,

they shall bear no fruit.

Even though they give birth,

I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.^*

¹⁷Because they have not listened to him,

my God will reject them;

they shall become wanderers among the nations.^*

Israel’s Sin and Captivity

¹⁰Israel is a luxuriant vine

that yields its fruit.

The more his fruit increased,

the more altars he built;

as his country improved,

he improved his pillars.^*

²Their heart is false;

now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord^q will break down their altars

and destroy their pillars.^*

³For now they will say:

“We have no king,

for we do not fear the Lord,

and a king—what could he do for us?”

⁴They utter mere words;

with empty oaths they make covenants;

so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds

in the furrows of the field.^*

⁵The inhabitants of Samaria tremble

for the calf^r of Beth-aven.

Its people shall mourn for it,

and its idolatrous priests shall wail^s over it,

over its glory that has departed from it.^*

⁶The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria

as tribute to the great king.^t

Ephraim shall be put to shame,

and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.^u*

⁷Samaria’s king shall perish

like a chip on the face of the waters.^*

⁸The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,

shall be destroyed.

Thorn and thistle shall grow up

on their altars.

They shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”

and to the hills, “Fall on us.”^*

⁹Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;

there they have continued.

Shall not war overtake them in Gibeah?^*

¹⁰I will come^v against the wayward people to punish them,

and nations shall be gathered against them

when they are punished^w for their double iniquity.^*

¹¹Ephraim was a trained heifer

that loved to thresh,

and I spared her fair neck,

but I will make Ephraim break the ground;

Judah must plow;

Jacob must harrow for himself.^*

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness;

reap steadfast love;

break up your fallow ground,

for it is time to seek the Lord,

that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.^*

¹³You have plowed wickedness;

you have reaped injustice;

you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your chariots,^x

in the multitude of your warriors,^*

¹⁴therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people,

and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,

as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.^*

¹⁵Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,

because of your great wickedness.

At dawn the king of Israel

shall be utterly cut off.^*

God’s Compassion Despite Israel’s Ingratitude

¹¹When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.^*

²The more I^y called them,

the more they went from me;^z

they kept sacrificing to the Baals

and offering incense to idols.^*

³Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;

I took them up in my^a arms,

but they did not know that I healed them.^*

⁴I led them with cords of human kindness,

with bands of love.

I was to them like those

who lift infants to their cheeks.^b

I bent down to them and fed them.^*

⁵They shall return to the land of Egypt,

and Assyria shall be their king,

because they have refused to return to me.^*

⁶The sword rages in their cities;

it consumes their oracle priests

and devours because of their schemes.^*

⁷My people are bent on turning away from me.

To the Most High they call,

but he does not raise them up at all.^c*

⁸How can I give you up, Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, O Israel?

How can I make you like Admah?

How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

My heart recoils within me;

my compassion grows warm and tender.^*

⁹I will not execute my fierce anger;

I will not again destroy Ephraim,

for I am God and no mortal,

the Holy One in your midst,

and I will not come in wrath.^d*

¹⁰They shall go after the Lord,

who roars like a lion;

when he roars,

his children shall come trembling from the west.^*

¹¹They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt

and like doves from the land of Assyria,

and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.^*

^12eEphraim has surrounded me with lies

and the house of Israel with deceit,

but Judah still walks^f with God

and is faithful to the Holy One.^*

¹²Ephraim herds the wind

and pursues the east wind all day long;

they multiply falsehood and violence;

they make a treaty with Assyria,

and oil is carried to Egypt.^*

The Long History of Rebellion

²The Lord has an indictment against Judah

and will punish Jacob according to his ways

and repay him according to his deeds.^*

³In the womb he tried to supplant his brother,

and in his manhood he strove with God.^*

⁴He strove with the angel and prevailed;

he wept and sought his favor;

he met him at Bethel,

and there he spoke with him.^g*

⁵The Lord the God of hosts,

the Lord is his name!

⁶But as for you, return to your God;

hold fast to love and justice,

and wait continually for your God.^*

⁷A trader in whose hands are false balances,

he loves to oppress.^*

⁸Ephraim has said, “Ah, I am rich;

I have gained wealth for myself;

in all of my gain

no offense has been found in me

that would be sin.”^h*

⁹I am the Lord your God

from the land of Egypt;

I will make you live in tents again,

as in the days of the appointed festival.^*

¹⁰I spoke to the prophets;

it was I who multiplied visions,

and through the prophets I will bring destruction.^*

¹¹Inⁱ Gilead there is iniquity;

they shall surely come to nothing.

In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls,

so their altars shall be like stone heaps

on the furrows of the field.^*

¹²Jacob fled to the land of Aram;

there Israel served for a wife,

and for a wife he guarded sheep.^j*

¹³By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up from Egypt,

and by a prophet he was guarded.^*

¹⁴Ephraim has given bitter offense,

so his Lord will bring his crimes down on him

and pay him back for his insults.^*