Hosea 7–8

Chapter 7

¹when I would heal Israel,

the corruption of Ephraim is revealed,

and the wicked deeds of Samaria;

for they deal falsely,

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid without.

²But they do not consider

that I remember all their evil works.

Now their deeds encompass them,

they are before my face.

³By their wickedness they make the king glad,

and the princes by their treachery.

⁴They are all adulterers;

they are like a heated oven,

whose baker ceases to stir the fire,

from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

⁵On the day of our king the princes

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.

⁶For like an oven their hearts burn^y with intrigue;

all night their anger smolders;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot as an oven,

and they devour their rulers.

All their kings have fallen;

and none of them calls upon me.

⁸Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹Aliens devour his strength,

and he knows it not;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

and he knows it not.

¹⁰The pride of Israel witnesses against him;

yet they do not return to the Lord their God,

nor seek him, for all this.

¹¹Ephraim is like a dove,

silly and without sense,

calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.

¹²As they go, I will spread over them my net;

I will bring them down like birds of the air;

I will chastise them for their wicked deeds.^z

¹³Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!

I would redeem them,

but they speak lies against me.

¹⁴They do not cry to me from the heart,

but they wail upon their beds;

for grain and wine they gash themselves,

they rebel against me.

¹⁵Although I trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they devise evil against me.

¹⁶They turn to Baal;^a

they are like a treacherous bow,

their princes shall fall by the sword

because of the insolence of their tongue.

This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Chapter 8

¹Set the trumpet to your lips,

for^b 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^c spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will it be

till they are pure ⁶in Israel?^d

A workman made it;

it is not God.

The calf of Samaria

shall be broken to pieces.^e

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^f for a little while

from anointing^g 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;^h

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.