Hosea 4-7

Hosea 4

¹Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of Israel; for Jehovah hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land; for there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.

²Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, -- they break out; and blood toucheth blood.

³For this shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

⁴Yet let no man strive, and let no man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

⁵And thou shalt stumble by day; and the prophet also shall stumble with thee by night: and I will destroy thy mother.

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; for thou hast rejected knowledge, and I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

⁷As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.

⁸They eat the sin of my people, and their soul longeth for their iniquity.

⁹And it shall be as the people so the priest; and I will visit their ways upon them, and recompense to them their doings;

¹⁰and they shall eat, and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: for they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.

¹¹Fornication, and wine, and new wine take away the heart.

¹²My people ask counsel of their stock, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of whoredoms causeth them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God:

¹³they sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oak and poplar and terebinth, because the shade thereof is good; therefore your daughters play the harlot and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your daughters-in-law for their committing adultery; for they themselves go aside with harlots, and they sacrifice with prostitutes: and the people that doth not understand shall come to ruin.

¹⁵Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, let not Judah trespass; and come ye not unto Gilgal, neither go up to Beth-aven, nor swear As Jehovah liveth!

¹⁶For Israel is refractory as an untractable heifer; now will Jehovah feed them as a lamb in a wide pasture.

¹⁷-- Ephraim is joined to idols: leave him alone.

¹⁸Their drink is sour; they give themselves up to whoredom; her great men passionately love their shame.

¹⁹The wind hath wrapped her up in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 5

¹Hear this, ye priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ear, O house of the king: for this judgment is for you; for ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

²And they have plunged themselves in the corruption of apostasy, but I will be a chastiser of them all.

³I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, Ephraim, thou hast committed whoredom; Israel is defiled.

⁴Their doings do not allow them to return unto their God; for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they know not Jehovah.

⁵And Israel's pride doth testify to his face; and Israel and Ephraim shall fall by their iniquity: Judah also shall fall with them.

⁶They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah; but they shall not find him: he hath withdrawn himself from them.

⁷They have dealt treacherously against Jehovah; for they have begotten strange children: now shall the new moon devour them, with their allotted possessions.

⁸Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; cry aloud at Beth-aven: behind thee, O Benjamin!

⁹Ephraim shall be a desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which is sure.

¹⁰The princes of Judah are become like them that remove the landmark: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because in selfwill he walked after the commandment of man.

¹²And I will be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sore, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb; but he was unable to heal you, nor hath he removed your sore.

¹⁴For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, I will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.

¹⁵I will go away, I will return to my place, till they acknowledge their trespass, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

Hosea 6

¹Come and let us return unto Jehovah: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

²After two days will he revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before his face;

³and we shall know, -- we shall follow on to know Jehovah: his going forth is assured as the morning dawn; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain which watereth the earth.

⁴What shall I do unto thee, Ephraim? What shall I do unto thee, Judah? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that early passeth away.

⁵Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and my judgment goeth forth as the light.

⁶For I delight in loving-kindness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.

⁷But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

⁸Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity; it is tracked with blood.

⁹And as troops of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way of Shechem; yea, they commit lewdness.

¹⁰In the house of Israel have I seen a horrible thing: the whoredom of Ephraim is there; Israel is defiled.

¹¹Also, for thee, Judah, is a harvest appointed, when I shall turn again the captivity of my people.

Hosea 7

¹When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they practise falsehood; and the thief entereth in, and the troop of robbers assaileth without.

²And they say not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now do their own doings encompass them; they are before my face.

³They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

⁴They all practise adultery, as an oven heated by the baker: he ceaseth from stirring the fire after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

⁵In the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine: he stretched out his hand to scorners.

⁶For they have applied their heart like an oven to their lying in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth like a flaming fire.

⁷They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

⁸Ephraim, he mixeth himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it not.

¹⁰And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face; and they do not return to Jehovah their God, nor seek him for all this.

¹¹And Ephraim is become like a silly dove without understanding: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

¹²When they go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowl of the heavens; I will chastise them, according as their assembly hath heard.

¹³Woe unto them! for they have wandered from me; destruction unto them! for they have transgressed against me. And I would redeem them; but they speak lies against me.

¹⁴And they cried not unto me in their heart, when they howled upon their beds; they assemble themselves for corn and new wine; they have turned aside from me.

¹⁵I have indeed trained, I have strengthened their arms, but they imagine mischief against me.

¹⁶They return, but not to the Most High: they are like a deceitful bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.