Hosea 12:1–14:9

¹Ephraim is enjoying wind, And is pursuing an east wind, All the day lying and spoiling he multiplieth, And a covenant with Asshur they make, And oil to Egypt is carried. ²And a controversy hath Jehovah with Judah, To lay a charge on Jacob according to his ways, According to his doings He returneth to him. ³In the womb he took his brother by the heel, And by his strength he was a prince with God, ⁴Yea, he is a prince unto the Messenger, And he overcometh by weeping, And he maketh supplication to Him, At Bethel He doth find him, And there He doth speak with us, ⁵Even Jehovah, God of the Hosts, Jehovah is His memorial. ⁶And thou, through thy God, dost turn, Kindness and judgment keep thou, And wait on thy God continually.

⁷Canaan! in his hand are balances of deceit! To oppress he hath loved. ⁸And Ephraim saith: ‘Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself, All my labours—they find not against me iniquity that is sin.’ ⁹And I—Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt, Again do I turn thee back into tents, As in the days of the appointed time. ¹⁰And I have spoken unto the prophets, And I have multiplied vision, And by the hand of the prophets I use similes. ¹¹Surely Gilead is iniquity, Only, vanity they have been, In Gilead bullocks they have sacrificed, Also their altars are as heaps, on the furrows of a field. ¹²And Jacob doth flee to the country of Aram, And Israel doth serve for a wife, Yea, for a wife he hath kept watch. ¹³And by a prophet hath Jehovah brought up Israel out of Egypt, And by a prophet it hath been watched. ¹⁴Ephraim hath provoked most bitterly, And his blood on himself he leaveth, And his reproach turn back to him doth his Lord!

Chapter 13

¹When Ephraim speaketh tremblingly, He hath been lifted up in Israel, When he becometh guilty in Baal he dieth. ²And now do they add to sin, And make to them a molten image of their silver, By their own understanding—idols, A work of artisans—all of it, Of them they say, who are sacrificers among men, ‘The calves let them kiss.’ ³Therefore they are as a cloud of the morning, And as dew, rising early, going away, As chaff tossed about out of a floor, And as smoke out of a window. ⁴And I am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt, And a God besides Me thou dost not know, And a Saviour—there is none save Me.

⁵I—I have known thee in a wilderness, In a land of droughts. ⁶According to their feedings they are satiated, They have been satiated, And their heart is lifted up, Therefore they have forgotten Me, ⁷And I am to them as a lion, As a leopard by the way I look out. ⁸I do meet them as a bereaved bear, And I rend the enclosure of their heart.

⁹And I consume them there as a lioness, A beast of the field doth rend them. ¹⁰Thou hast destroyed thyself, O Israel, But in Me is thy help, Where is thy king now—And he doth save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges of whom thou didst say, ‘Give to me a king and heads?’ ¹¹I give to thee a king in Mine anger, And I take away in My wrath. ¹²Bound up is the iniquity of Ephraim, Hidden is his sin, ¹³Pangs of a travailing woman come to him, He is a son not wise, For he remaineth not the time for the breaking forth of sons. ¹⁴From the hand of Sheol I do ransom them, From death I redeem them, Where is thy plague, O death? Where thy destruction, O Sheol? Repentance is hid from Mine eyes. ¹⁵Though he among brethren produceth fruit, Come in doth an east wind, a wind of Jehovah, From a wilderness it is coming up, And it drieth up his fountain, And become dry doth his spring, It—it spoileth a treasure—every desirable vessel. ¹⁶Become desolate doth Samaria, Because she hath rebelled against her God, By sword they do fall, Their sucklings are dashed in pieces, And its pregnant ones are ripped up!

Chapter 14

¹Turn back, O Israel, unto Jehovah thy God, For thou hast stumbled by thine iniquity. ²Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah, Say ye unto Him: ‘Take away all iniquity, and give good, And we do render the fruit of our lips. ³Asshur doth not save us, on a horse we ride not, Nor do we say any more, Our God, to the work of our hands, For in Thee find mercy doth the fatherless.’

⁴I heal their backsliding, I love them freely, For turned back hath Mine anger from him. ⁵I am as dew to Israel, he flourisheth as a lily, And he striketh forth his roots as Lebanon. ⁶Go on do his sucklings, And his beauty is as an olive, And he hath fragrance as Lebanon. ⁷Return do the dwellers under his shadow, They revive as corn, and flourish as a vine, His memorial is as wine of Lebanon.

⁸O Ephraim, what to Me any more with idols? I—I afflicted, and I cause him to sing: ‘I am as a green fir-tree,’ From Me is thy fruit found. ⁹Who is wise, and doth understand these? Prudent, and knoweth them? For upright are the ways of Jehovah, And the righteous go on in them, And the transgressors stumble therein!

Chapter 1