Hosea 8-14

GOD’S WORD Translation

⁴ “They chose their own kings, kings I didn’t approve.
They chose their own princes, princes I didn’t know.
They chose to make idols with their own silver and gold.
Because of this, they will be destroyed.
⁵ Get rid of your calf-shaped idol, Samaria.
My anger burns against these people.
How long will they remain unclean? ^[a]
6 Samaria’s calf-shaped idol was made in Israel.
Skilled workers made it.
It is not a god.
It will be smashed to pieces.

⁷ “The people of Israel plant the wind, but they harvest a storm.
A field of grain that doesn’t ripen will never produce any grain.
Even if it did produce grain, foreigners would eat it all.
⁸ Israel will be swallowed up.
It has already mixed in with the other nations.
It has become worthless.

⁹ “The people of Israel went to Assyria.
They were like wild donkeys wandering off alone.
The people of Ephraim sold themselves to their lovers.
¹⁰ Even though they sold themselves among the nations,
I will gather them now.
They will suffer for a while under the burdens of kings and princes.

¹¹ “The more altars that the people of Ephraim build
to make offerings to pay for their sins,
the more places they have for sinning.
¹² I have written many things for them in my teachings,
but they consider these things strange and foreign.
¹³ They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of sacrifices,
but I, the Lord, do not accept these sacrifices.
Now I will remember their wickedness
and punish them because of their sins.
They will go back to Egypt.
¹⁴ The people of Israel have built palaces,
and they have forgotten their maker.
The people of Judah have built many fortified cities.
I will send a fire on their cities and burn down their palaces.”
9 Israel, don’t rejoice.
Don’t celebrate as other nations do.
You have been unfaithful to your God.
You have sold sex on every threshing floor.^[b]
2 There won’t be enough grain to feed people.
There won’t be enough wine to go around.

³ The people of Ephraim won’t stay in the Lord’s land.
They will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean ^[c] food in Assyria.
⁴ They won’t pour wine offerings to the Lord,
and their sacrifices won’t please him.
Their sacrifices will be like the food that mourners eat.
All who eat this food will be unclean.
Their food will only satisfy their hunger.
It will not be brought ⌞as an offering⌟ to the Lord’s temple.

⁵ What will they do on the day of an appointed festival
or on the Lord’s festival days?
⁶ Even if they escape without being destroyed,
Egypt will capture them
and Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will grow over their silver treasures.
Thorns will grow over their tents.
⁷ The time for them to be punished will come.
The time for them to pay for their sins will come.
⌞When this happens,⌟ Israel will know it.
⌞They think that⌟ prophets are fools
and that spiritual people are crazy.
They have sinned a lot, and they are very hostile.
⁸ Prophets are God’s watchmen over Ephraim.
Yet, traps are set on every prophet’s path,
and people are hostile in the temple of their God.
⁹ People have deeply corrupted themselves as they once did at Gibeah.
God will remember their wickedness
and punish them because of their sins.

¹¹ “Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird.
There will be no more pregnancies, births, or babies.
¹² Even if they bring up children,
I will take those children away before they grow up.
Yes, how horrible it will be for them when I leave them.
¹³ I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place.
But the people of Ephraim will bring out their children
to be killed.”

¹⁴ Lord, give them what they deserve.
Make the women miscarry,
or else make them unable to nurse their babies.

¹⁵ “All Ephraim’s wickedness began in Gilgal; I hated the people there.
I will force them out of my temple because of their wickedness,
and I won’t love them anymore.
All their officials are rebellious.

¹⁶ “The people of Ephraim are like sick plants.
Their roots are dried up.
They have no fruit.
Even if they were to have children,
I would kill their dear children.”

¹⁷ My God will reject them
because they refused to listen to him.
They will wander among the nations.

⁵ Those who live in Samaria fear the calf-shaped idol at Beth Aven.
The people will mourn over it.
The priests will cry loudly
because its glory will be taken away into captivity.
⁶ The thing itself will be carried to Assyria
as a present to the great king.^[d]
Ephraim will be disgraced.
Israel will be ashamed because of its plans.
⁷ The king of Samaria will be carried away
like a piece of wood on water.
⁸ The illegal worship sites of Aven will be destroyed.
Israel sins there.
Thorns and weeds will grow over those altars.
People will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
⁹ Israel, you have sinned ever since the incident at Gibeah.
You never change.
War will overtake the wicked people in Gibeah.
¹⁰ “I will punish them when I’m ready.
Armies will gather to attack them.
They will be punished for their many sins.

¹² “Break new ground.
Plant righteousness,
and harvest the fruit that your loyalty will produce for me.”

It’s time to seek the Lord!
When he comes, he will rain righteousness on you.
¹³ You have planted wickedness and harvested evil.
You have eaten the fruit that your lies produced.
You have trusted your own power and your many warriors.
¹⁴ So your army will hear the noise of battle.
All your fortresses will be destroyed
like the time Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in battle.
Mothers and their children were smashed to death.
¹⁵ This is what will happen to you, Bethel,
because you have done many wicked things.
At daybreak, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

⁵ “They will not return to Egypt.
Instead, Assyria will rule them
because they have refused to return to me.
⁶ War will sweep through their cities,
demolish their city gates,
and put an end to their plans.
⁷ My people are determined to turn away from me.
Even if they call to the Most High,
he will not pardon them.

⁸ “How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboim?
I have changed my mind.
I am deeply moved.
⁹ I will not act on my burning anger.
I will not destroy Ephraim again.
I am God, not a human.
I am the Holy One among you,
and I will not come to you in anger.

¹⁰ “My people will follow me when I roar like a lion.
When I roar, my children will come trembling from the west.
¹¹ They will come trembling like birds from Egypt
and like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them in their own homes,”
declares the Lord.^[j]

¹² “Ephraim surrounds me with lies.
The nation of Israel surrounds me with deceit.”
Judah rebels against God, against the Holy One who is faithful.

² The Lord brings charges against Judah and punishes Jacob
because of the way their people act.
He will pay them back for what they have done.
³ Their ancestor Jacob held on to his brother’s heel
while the two of them were in their mother’s womb.
When Jacob became a man, he struggled with God.
⁴ He struggled with the Messenger and won.
Jacob cried and pleaded with him.
Jacob found him at Bethel,
and he talked with him there.
⁵ The Lord is the God of Armies.
The Lord is the name by which he is remembered.
⁶ Return to your God.
Be loyal and fair, and always wait with hope for your God.

⁷ ⌞The Lord says,⌟ “The merchants use dishonest scales.
They love to cheat people.
⁸ The people of Ephraim say, ‘We’re rich. We’ve made a fortune.
With all this wealth, no one will find us guilty of any sin.’
⁹ I am the Lord your God.
I brought you out of Egypt.
I will make you live in tents again
as you did during your appointed festivals.
¹⁰ I spoke to the prophets and gave them many visions.
I taught lessons through the prophets.” ^[l]

¹¹ The people of Gilead are evil.
They are worthless.
They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal.
But their altars will become like piles of rubble
beside a plowed field.
¹² Jacob fled to the country of Syria.
Israel worked to get a wife; he took care of sheep to pay for her.
¹³ The Lord used a prophet to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt.
He used a prophet to take care of them.

¹⁴ The people of Ephraim made the Lord bitter.
He will hold them guilty of murder.
The Lord will pay them back for their insults.

⁴ “I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt.
You have known no god besides me.
There is no savior except me.
⁵ I took care of you ^[n] in the desert, in a dry land.
⁶ When I fed you, you were full.
When you were full, you became arrogant.
That is why you forgot me.
⁷ So I will be like a lion.
Like a leopard I will wait by the road to ambush you.
⁸ Like a bear that has lost her cubs, I will attack you.
I will rip you open.
Like a lion I will devour you.
Like a wild animal I will tear you apart.
⁹ You are destroying yourself, Israel.
You are against me, your helper.

¹⁰ “Where, now, is your king, the one who is supposed to save you?
Where in all your cities are your judges?
You said, ‘Give us kings and officials!’
¹¹ I gave you a king when I was angry,
and I took him away when I was furious.

¹² “Ephraim’s wickedness is on record.
The record of the people’s sins is safely stored away.
¹³ They have the opportunity to live again,
but they are not smart enough to take it.
They are like a baby who is about to be born
but won’t come out of its mother’s womb.

¹⁴ “I want to free them from the power of the grave.
I want to reclaim them from death.
Death, I want to be a plague to you.
Grave, I want to destroy you.^[o]
I won’t even think of changing my plans.”

¹⁵ The people of Ephraim have become important among their relatives.
However, the Lord’s scorching wind will come from the east.
It will blow out of the desert.
Then their springs will run dry,
and their wells will dry up.
The wind will destroy every precious thing in their storehouses.^[p]
16 The people of Samaria are guilty as charged
because they rebelled against their God.
They will be killed in war,
their children will be smashed to death,
and their pregnant women will be ripped open.

⁴ ⌞The Lord says,⌟ “I will cure them of their unfaithfulness.
I will love them freely.
I will no longer be angry with them.
⁵ I will be like dew to the people of Israel.
They will blossom like flowers.
They will be firmly rooted like cedars from Lebanon.
⁶ They will be like growing branches.
They will be beautiful like olive trees.
They will be fragrant like cedars from Lebanon.
⁷ They will live again in God’s shadow.
They will grow like grain.
They will blossom like grapevines.
They will be as famous as the wines from Lebanon.

⁸ “The people of Ephraim will have nothing more to do with idols.
I will answer them and take care of them.
I am like a growing pine tree.
Their fruit comes from me.”

⁹ Wise people will understand these things.
A person with insight will recognize them.
The Lord’s ways are right.
Righteous people live by them.
Rebellious people stumble over them.