Hosea 5-8

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

³ I know Ephraim,
    and Israel is not hidden from me,
for now, O Ephraim, you have prostituted yourself;
    Israel is defiled.^(B)
4 Their deeds do not permit them
    to return to their God.
For the spirit of prostitution is within them,
    and they do not know the Lord.^(C)

⁵ Israel’s pride testifies against him;
    Ephraim^[b] stumbles in his guilt;
    Judah also stumbles with them.^(D)
6 With their flocks and herds they shall go
    to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
    he has withdrawn from them.^(E)
7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord,
    for they have borne illegitimate children.
    Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields.^(F)

⁸ Blow the horn in Gibeah,
    the trumpet in Ramah.
Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;
    look behind you, Benjamin!^(G)
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
    in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
    I declare what is sure.^(H)
10 The princes of Judah have become
    like those who remove the landmark;
on them I will pour out
    my wrath like water.^(I)
11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
    because he was determined to go after vanity.^[c]
12 Therefore I am like maggots to Ephraim
    and like rottenness to the house of Judah.^(J)
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness
    and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria
    and sent to the great king.^[d]
But he is not able to cure you
    or heal your wound.^(K)
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim
    and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear and go away;
    I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.^(L)
15 I will return again to my place
    until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.
    In their distress they will beg my favor:^(M)

⁷ But at^[f] Adam they transgressed the covenant;
    there they dealt faithlessly with me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    tracked with blood.
⁹ As robbers lie in wait^[g] for someone,
    so the priests are banded together;^[h]
they murder on the road to Shechem;
    they commit a monstrous crime.^(S)
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
    Ephraim’s prostitution is there; Israel is defiled.^(T)

¹¹ For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.

When I would restore the fortunes of my people,^(U)

7 when I would heal Israel,
    the corruption of Ephraim is revealed,
    and the wicked deeds of Samaria,
for they deal falsely;
    the thief breaks in,
    and the bandits raid outside.^(V)
2 But they do not consider
    that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their deeds surround them;
    they are before my face.^(W)
3 By their wickedness they make the king glad,
    and the officials by their treachery.
⁴ They are all adulterers;
    they are like a heated oven
whose baker does not need to stir the fire
    from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.^(X)
5 On the day of our king the officials
    became sick with the heat of wine;
    he stretched out his hand with mockers.^(Y)
6 For they are kindled^[i] like an oven; their heart burns within them;
    all night their anger smolders;
    in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are hot as an oven,
    and they devour their rulers.
All their kings have fallen;
    none of them calls upon me.^(Z)

⁸ Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;
    Ephraim is a cake not turned.
⁹ Foreigners devour his strength,
    but he does not know it;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
    but he does not know it.^(AA)
10 Israel’s pride testifies against^[j] him;
    yet they do not return to the Lord their God
    or seek him, for all this.^(AB)

¹⁴ They do not cry to me from the heart,
    but they wail upon their beds;
they gash themselves for grain and wine;
    they rebel against me.^(AF)
15 It was I who trained and strengthened their arms,
    yet they plot evil against me.^(AG)
16 They turn to that which does not profit;^[l]
    they have become like a defective bow;
their officials shall fall by the sword
    because of the rage of their tongue.
So much for their babbling in the land of Egypt.^(AH)

⁴ They made kings but not through me;
    they set up princes but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they made idols
    for their own destruction.^(AK)
5 Your calf is rejected, O Samaria.
    My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?^(AL)
6     For it is from Israel,
an artisan made it;
    it is not God.
The calf of Samaria
    shall be broken to pieces.^(AM)

⁷ For they sow the wind,
    and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads;
    it shall yield no meal;
if it were to yield,
    foreigners would devour it.^(AN)
8 Israel is swallowed up;
    now they are among the nations
    as a useless vessel.^(AO)
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
    a wild ass wandering alone;
    Ephraim has bargained for lovers.^(AP)
10 Though they bargain with the nations,
    I will now gather them up.
They shall soon writhe
    under the burden of kings and princes.^(AQ)

¹¹ When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sin,
    they became to him altars for sinning.
¹² Though I write for him the multitude of my instructions,
    they are regarded as a strange thing.^(AR)
13 Though they offer choice sacrifices,^[o]
    though they eat flesh,
    the Lord does not accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity
    and punish their sins;
    they shall return to Egypt.^(AS)
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker
    and built palaces,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities,
    but I will send a fire upon his cities,
    and it shall devour his strongholds.^(AT)