HOSEA 7-10

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Ephraim’s Iniquity7:1 When I would heal Israel,

The iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered,

And the evil deeds of Samaria,

For they deal falsely;

The thief enters in,

Bandits raid outside,

2 And they do not consider in their hearts

That I remember all their wickedness.

Now their deeds are all around them;

They are before My face.

3 With their wickedness they make the king glad,

And the princes with their lies.

4 They are all adulterers,

Like an oven heated by the baker

Who ceases to stir up the fire

From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

5 On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine;

He stretched out his hand with scoffers,

6 For their hearts are like an oven

As they approach their plotting;

Their anger smolders all night,

In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

7 All of them are hot like an oven,

And they consume their rulers;

All their kings have fallen.

None of them calls on Me.

8 Ephraim mixes himself with the nations;

Ephraim has become a cake not turned.

9 Strangers devour his strength,

Yet he does not know it;

Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,

Yet he does not know it.

10 Though the pride of Israel testifies against him,

Yet they have not returned to the LORD their God,

Nor have they sought Him, for all this.

11 So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense;

They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

12 When they go, I will spread My net over them;

I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.

I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly.

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

Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!

I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.

14 And they do not cry to Me from their heart

When they wail on their beds;

For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves,

They turn away from Me.

15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms,

Yet they devise evil against Me.

16 They turn, but not upward,

They are like a deceitful bow;

Their princes will fall by the sword

Because of the insolence of their tongue.

This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Israel Reaps the Whirlwind8:1 Put the trumpet to your lips!

Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the LORD,

Because they have transgressed My covenant

And rebelled against My law.

2 They cry out to Me,

“My God, we of Israel know You!”

3 Israel has rejected the good;

The enemy will pursue him.

4 They have set up kings, but not by Me;

They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.

With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves,

That they might be cut off.

5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying,

“My anger burns against them!”

How long will they be incapable of innocence?

6 For from Israel is even this!

A craftsman made it, so it is not God;

Surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.

7 For they sow the wind

And they reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

It yields no grain.

Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up;

They are now among the nations

Like a vessel in which no one delights.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria,

Like a wild donkey all alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

10 Even though they hire allies among the nations,

Now I will gather them up;

And they will begin to diminish

Because of the burden of the king of princes.

11 Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,

They have become altars of sinning for him.

12 Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law,

They are regarded as a strange thing.

13 As for My sacrificial gifts,

They sacrifice the flesh and eat it,

But the LORD has taken no delight in them.

Now He will remember their iniquity,

And punish them for their sins;

They will return to Egypt.

14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;

And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,

But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.

Ephraim Punished9:1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations!

For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.

You have loved harlots’ earnings on every threshing floor.

2 Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them,

And the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not remain in the LORD’S land,

But Ephraim will return to Egypt,

And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.

4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD,

Their sacrifices will not please Him.

Their bread will be like mourners’ bread;

All who eat of it will be defiled,

For their bread will be for themselves alone;

It will not enter the house of the LORD.

5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival

And on the day of the feast of the LORD?

6 For behold, they will go because of destruction;

Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them.

Weeds will take over their treasures of silver;

Thorns will be in their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come,

The days of retribution have come;

Let Israel know this!

The prophet is a fool,

The inspired man is demented,

Because of the grossness of your iniquity,

And because your hostility is so great.

8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;

Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,

And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

9 They have gone deep in depravity

As in the days of Gibeah;

He will remember their iniquity,

He will punish their sins.

10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;

I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.

But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame,

And they became as detestable as that which they loved.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird--

No birth, no pregnancy and no conception!

12 Though they bring up their children,

Yet I will bereave them until not a man is left.

Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!

13 Ephraim, as I have seen,

Is planted in a pleasant meadow like Tyre;

But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.

14 Give them, O LORD--what will You give?

Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

15 All their evil is at Gilgal;

Indeed, I came to hate them there!

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.

16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,

They will bear no fruit.

Even though they bear children,

I will slay the precious ones of their womb.

17 My God will cast them away

Because they have not listened to Him;

And they will be wanderers among the nations.

Retribution for Israel’s Sin10:1 Israel is a luxuriant vine;

He produces fruit for himself.

The more his fruit,

The more altars he made;

The richer his land,

The better he made the sacred pillars.

2 Their heart is faithless;

Now they must bear their guilt.

The LORD will break down their altars

And destroy their sacred pillars.

3 Surely now they will say, “We have no king,

For we do not revere the LORD.

As for the king, what can he do for us?”

4 They speak mere words,

With worthless oaths they make covenants;

And judgment sprouts like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

5 The inhabitants of Samaria will fear

For the calf of Beth-aven.

Indeed, its people will mourn for it,

And its idolatrous priests will cry out over it,

Over its glory, since it has departed from it.

6 The thing itself will be carried to Assyria

As tribute to King Jareb;

Ephraim will be seized with shame

And Israel will be ashamed of its own counsel.

7 Samaria will be cut off with her king

Like a stick on the surface of the water.

8 Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed;

Thorn and thistle will grow on their altars;

Then they will say to the mountains,

“Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

9 From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;

There they stand!

Will not the battle against the sons of iniquity overtake them in Gibeah?

10 When it is My desire, I will chastise them;

And the peoples will be gathered against them

When they are bound for their double guilt.

11 Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh,

But I will come over her fair neck with a yoke;

I will harness Ephraim,

Judah will plow, Jacob will harrow for himself.

12 Sow with a view to righteousness,

Reap in accordance with kindness;

Break up your fallow ground,

For it is time to seek the LORD

Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

13 You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice,

You have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your way, in your numerous warriors,

14 Therefore a tumult will arise among your people,

And all your fortresses will be destroyed,

As Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle,

When mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

15 Thus it will be done to you at Bethel because of your great wickedness.

At dawn the king of Israel will be completely cut off.

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