Hosea 8

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.^*