Hosea 8

Chapter 8

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.