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Hosea 7:1-10
1 However much I would heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim are revealed,
and the crimes of Samaria;
for they practice deception;
thieves break in and thugs raid
in broad daylight!
2 But they do not understand
that I remember all their evil.
Their deeds engulf them even now;
they are always before.
3 By their evil they make the king glad,
and the officials by their treachery.
4 They are all adulterers;
Like an oven heated by the baker
who ceases to stir the fire,
from kneading the dough till it rises
5 On the day of our king,
the officials made him ill, drunk with wine;
he held out his hand with scoffers.
6 For they brought their scheming
With oven heated hearts;
They baked all night in their sleep;
and in the morning it blazed
like a flaming fire!
7 All of them were as hot as an oven;
they devoured their rulers.
Now all their kings have fallen,
yet none of them calls on me.
8 Ephraim mixes himself with the nations;
Ephraim is like a cake not turned.
9 Strangers drain his strength,
and he knows it not;
his hair is speckled with grey,
and he does not knows it!
10 Israel’s pride testifies against him, yet
they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek him, for all this.
Hosea 7:11-16
11 Ephraim is like a dove,
fickle and with no sense,
calling to Egypt, then going to Assyria.
12 Wherever they go,
I will throw my net over them;
I will bring them down
like the birds of the heavens;
I will chastise them
in public humiliation.
13 Woe 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.
14 They do not cry to me from the heart,
but they wail upon their beds;
they gather together for grain and wine,
and yet they rebel against me!
15 Though I trained and strengthened them,
yet they pot evil against me.
16 They do not turn back up to me,
they are like a faulty weapon.
their officials will fall by the sword
because of their impudent words.
They will be ridiculed for this
in the land of Egypt.
Hosea 8:1-6
1 Put the trumpet to your lips!
An eagle hovers over the house of the Lord
because they have broken my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
2 They cry out to me – ‘O my God!
we are Israel – we know you!’
3 But Israel has rejected what is good,
so an enemy will pursue him.
4 They set up kings, but not through me;
they choose princes without my approval.
With their silver and gold they made idols
In order to cut themselves off!
5 He has rejected your calf-idol, O Samaria!
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be
incapable of purity?
6 This thing is the product of Israel!
A craftsman has made it, it is no God!
The calf of Samaria
will be broken in pieces!
Hosea 8:7-14
7 They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no head,
so it will not yield its fruit.
And without it making flour,
perhaps strangers will swallow it!
8 Israel is swallowed up;
now she is among the nations
like an object with no purpose.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
as a wild donkey wandering by itself.
Ephraim has hired lovers!
10 Now look, they hired nations,
when it was I who should gather them.
So the kings and princes
will soon be oppressed by taxes.
11 Though Ephraim had many altars for sin,
They became altars that led him astray.
12 Were I to write for him thousands of laws,
they would have regarded them as alien.
13 They offer me sacrificial gifts
they kill and eat the meat,
but the Lord is not pleased with them.
Now he will remember their guilt
and punish their sins:
They will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built palaces;
Judah has built even more
of her fortified cities.
But I will send fire upon their cities
that will consume their strongholds.
Hosea 9:1-9
1 Do not rejoice, O Israel;
do not revel like the other nations.
For you have committed adultery
against your own God;
you have loved a prostitute’s fee
at every threshing-floor.
2 Threshing-floor and winepress
will not sustain them;
the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt
and eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They will not pour gifts of wine to the Lord,
and their sacrifices will not please him.
For them, it will be like mourners’ bread;
all who eat them will be unclean.
Their bread will be for themselves;
it will not come to the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the festival day,
on the day of feasting to the Lord?
6 For look, they escape from violence,
but Egypt will gather them,
and Memphis will bury them!
Weeds will inherit their treasures of silver,
and thorns will overrun their homes!
7 Let Israel know this:
Days of punishment have come,
Days of retribution have come.
The prophet is considered a fool,
The man of the spirit is considered mad;
Because of the greatness of your sin
Because of the greatness of your hatred
8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God
And the prophet is a trap that is set
Because of all his acrimonious ways
in the house of the Lord.
9 They have gone deeply into corruption,
as in the days of Gibeah.
God will remember their wickedness
He punish their sins.
Hosea 9:10-17
10 I found Israel,
like grapes in the desert;
I saw your fathers,
like the first fruit on the fig-tree.
But they came to Baal Peor
and consecrated themselves to shame,
they became as vile
as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird
- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
12 If they raise children,
I will make them bereft among nations.
Woe to them when I leave from them!
13 I once looked at Ephraim
as like a palm planted in a meadow.
But she has given her children to death.
14 Give them something, O Lord?
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.
15 All their wickedness began in Gilgal;
I came to hate them there.
Because of their evil deeds,
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebels!
16 Ephraim is struck down,
their root has withered,
They will never bear fruit.
For even if they give birth,
I will destroy their cherished offspring.
17 My God will reject them
because they did not listen to Him;
They will be wanderers among the nations.
Hosea 10:1-8
1 Israel is a productive vine
yielding fruit in its own likeness.
The more his fruit increased
the more altars he built;
the richer his land,
the better pillars he made.
2 Their heart is split;
now they must bear their guilt
The Lord will break down their altars,
and destroy their pillars.
3 Look, they will now say:
‘We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord,
and a king - what can he do for us?’
4 They utter mere words;
they make covenants with empty oaths;
so lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds
in a ploughed field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria
fear for the calf of Beth-aven.
Its people mourn for it,
and its idolatrous priests,
They wail over it and over its glory,
which has departed from it.
6 The thing itself will be carried to Assyria
as tribute to the great king.
Ephraim will be disgraced,
and Israel will be ashamed of its counsel.
7 Samaria's king will perish
like a twig on the surface of the water.
8 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
will be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle will grow over their altars.
They shall say to the mountains,
Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us.
Hosea 10:9-15
9 Since the days of Gibeah
you have sinned, O Israel!
There they stand.
will not war against the unrighteous
reach as far as Gibeah?
10 I will come to punish them;
nations shall be gathered against them
when I bind them for their double sin.
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer
that loves to thresh,
But I will break her in;
I will make Ephraim work;
Judah must plough;
Jacob must harrow for him.
12 Sow righteousness for yourselves,
reap the fruit of covenant love;
break up your fallow ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
so that He might come
and rain righteousness on you.
13 You have ploughed wickedness,
you have reaped injustice,
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
For you have trusted in your own ways
and in plenty of warriors,
14 A battle-cry will rise against your people,
and all your fortresses will be destroyed,
as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel in battle
and massacred mothers and children
15 This is what will happen to you, Bethel,
because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
will be totally destroyed.
Hosea 11:1-7
1 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Ba’als,
and offering incense to idols.
3 But it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them up in my arms;
but they did not know
that I healed them.
4 I led them along with cords of compassion,
with bonds of love
I was to them like those
who lift children to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.
5 They will return to the land of Egypt,
and Assyria will be their king,
because they refused to return to me.
6 The sword will rage in their cities,
it will consume their gates,
and devour because of their schemes.
7 My people are bent on turning away from me.
To the Most High they call,
but he will not raise them up at all.
Hosea 11:8-11
8 How can I give you up, 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 turns over within me;
my compassion is stirred.
9 I will not carry out my fierce anger;
I will not turn and destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not man,
the Holy One in your midst,
I will not come in wrath.
10 They will go after the Lord,
He will roar like a lion;
And when he roars,
his children will come trembling
from the west.
11 They come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria;
and I will settle them in their homes,
says the Lord.
12 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
and the house of Israel with deceit;
And Judah is still restless with God,
with the faithful Holy One.
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