Hosea 8:1–11:12

¹Set the trumpet to your lips,

for a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because they have broken my covenant,

and transgressed my law.

²To me they cry,

My God, we Israel know thee.

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.

⁵I have spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will it be

till they are pure ⁶in Israel?

A workman 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,

aliens would devour it.

⁸Israel is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

as a useless vessel.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,

a wild ass wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

¹⁰Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And they shall cease for a little while

from anointing king and princes.

¹¹Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

¹²Were I to write for him my laws by ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

¹³They love sacrifice;

they sacrifice flesh and eat it;

but the Lord has no delight in them.

Now he will remember their iniquity,

and punish their sins;

they shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴For Israel 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.

Chapter 9

¹Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult not like the peoples;

for you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.

You have loved a harlot’s hire

upon all threshing floors.

²Threshing floor and winevat 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 they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴They shall not pour libations of wine to the Lord;

and they shall not please him with their sacrifices.

Their bread 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 feast of the Lord?

⁶For behold, they are going to Assyria;

Egypt shall gather them,

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;

thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷The days of punishment have come,

the days of recompense have come;

Israel shall know it.

The prophet is a fool,

the man of the spirit is mad,

because of your great iniquity

and great hatred.

⁸The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim,

the people of my God,

yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

and hatred in the house of his God.

⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves

as in the days of Gibe-ah:

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 fathers.

But they came to Baal-peor,

and consecrated themselves to Baal,

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 till none is left.

Woe to them

when I depart from them!

¹³Ephraim’s sons, as I have seen, are destined for a prey;

Ephraim must lead forth his sons to slaughter.

¹⁴Give them, O Lord—

what wilt thou give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

¹⁵Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;

there I began 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 princes are rebels.

¹⁶Ephraim is stricken,

their root is dried up,

they shall bear no fruit.

Even though they bring forth,

I will slay their beloved children.

¹⁷My God will cast them off,

because they have not hearkened to him;

they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Chapter 10

¹Israel 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 will break down their altars,

and destroy their pillars.

³For now they will say:

“We have no king,

for we fear not the Lord,

and a king, what could he do for us?”

⁴They utter mere words;

with empty oaths they make covenants;

so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds

in the furrows of the field.

⁵The inhabitants of Samaria tremble

for the calf of Beth-aven.

Its people shall mourn for it,

and its idolatrous priests shall wail over it,

over its glory which has departed from it.

⁶Yea, the thing itself shall be carried to Assyria,

as tribute to the great king.

Ephraim shall be put to shame,

and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.

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;

and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us,

and to the hills, Fall upon us.

⁹From the days of Gibe-ah, you have sinned, O Israel;

there they have continued.

Shall not war overtake them in Gibe-ah?

¹⁰I will come against the wayward people to chastise them;

and nations shall be gathered against them

when they are chastised for their double iniquity.

¹¹Ephraim was a trained heifer

that loved to thresh,

and I spared her fair neck;

but I will put Ephraim to the yoke,

Judah must plow,

Jacob must harrow for himself.

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness,

reap the fruit of steadfast love;

break up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the Lord,

that he may come and rain salvation upon you.

¹³You have plowed iniquity,

you have reaped injustice,

you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your chariots

and in the multitude of your warriors,

¹⁴therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,

and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,

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

mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

¹⁵Thus it shall be done to you, O house of Israel,

because of your great wickedness.

In the storm the king of Israel

shall be utterly cut off.

Chapter 11

¹When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.

²The more I called them,

the more they went from me;

they kept sacrificing to the Baals,

and burning incense to idols.

³Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,

I took them up in my arms;

but they did not know that I healed them.

⁴I led them with cords of compassion,

with the bands of love,

and I became to them as one,

who eases the yoke on their jaws,

and 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 shall rage against their cities,

consume the bars of their gates,

and devour them in their fortresses.

⁷My people are bent on turning away from me;

so they are appointed to the yoke,

and none shall remove it.

⁸How can I give you up, O 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 not man,

the Holy One in your midst,

and I will not come to destroy.

¹⁰They shall go after the Lord,

he will roar like a lion;

yea, he will roar,

and his sons 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.

¹²Ephraim has encompassed me with lies,

and the house of Israel with deceit;

but Judah is still known by God,

and is faithful to the Holy One.