Hosea 8-10

Hosea 8

¹SET the trumpet to thy mouth. As an eagle he cometh against the house of the LORD: because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

²They shall cry unto me, My God, we Israel know thee.

³Israel hath cast off that which is good: the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

⁵He hath cast off thy calf, O Samaria; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?

⁶For from Israel is even this; the workman made it, and it is no God: yea, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

⁷For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: he hath no standing corn; the blade shall yield no meal; if so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it up.

⁸Israel is swallowed up: now are they among the nations as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

⁹For they are gone up to Assyria, like a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.

¹⁰Yea, though they hire among the nations, now will I gather them; and they begin to be minished by reason of the burden of the king of princes.

¹¹Because Ephraim hath multiplied altars to sin, altars have been unto him to sin.

¹²Though I write for him my law in ten thousand precepts, they are counted as a strange thing.

¹³As for the sacrifices of mine offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not: now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins; they shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and builded palaces; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the castles thereof.

Hosea 9

¹Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved hire upon every cornfloor.

²The threshing-floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.

³They shall not dwell in the LORD’S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴They shall not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of the LORD.

⁵What will ye do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

⁶For, lo, they are gone away from destruction, yet Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great.

⁸Ephraim was a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a fowler’s snare is in all his ways, and enmity in the house of his God.

⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first season: but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves unto the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.

¹¹As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.

¹²Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there be not a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

¹³Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slayer.

¹⁴Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house: I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters.

¹⁶Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb.

¹⁷My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Hosea 10

¹Israel is a luxuriant vine, which putteth forth his fruit: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath multiplied his altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly pillars.

²Their heart is divided; now shall they be found guilty: he shall smite their altars, he shall spoil their pillars.

³Surely now shall they say, We have no king: for we fear not the LORD; and the king, what can he do for us?

⁴They speak vain words, swearing falsely in making covenants: therefore judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

⁵The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced over it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.

⁶It also shall be carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

⁷As for Samaria, her king is cut off, as foam upon the water.

⁸The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

⁹O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood; that the battle against the children of iniquity should not overtake them in Gibeah.

¹⁰When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the peoples shall be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions.

¹¹And Ephraim is an heifer that is taught, that loveth to tread out the corn; but I have passed over upon her fair neck: I will set a rider on Ephraim; Judah shall plow, Jacob shall break his clods.

¹²Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

¹³Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: for thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

¹⁴Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces with her children.

¹⁵So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness: at daybreak shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off.