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Hosea 8-14
The Message
Hosea 8-14
The Message
Altars for Sinning
8 1-3 “Blow the trumpet! Sound the alarm!
Vultures are circling over God’s people
Who have broken my covenant
and defied my revelation.
Predictably, Israel cries out, ‘My God! We know you!’
But they don’t act like it.
Israel will have nothing to do with what’s good,
and now the enemy is after them.
4-10 “They crown kings, but without asking me.
They set up princes but don’t let me in on it.
Instead, they make idols, using silver and gold,
idols that will be their ruin.
Throw that gold calf-god on the trash heap, Samaria!
I’m seething with anger against that rubbish!
How long before they shape up?
And they’re Israelites!
A sculptor made that thing—
it’s not God.
That Samaritan calf
will be broken to bits.
Look at them! Planting wind-seeds,
they’ll harvest tornadoes.
Wheat with no head
produces no flour.
And even if it did,
strangers would gulp it down.
Israel is swallowed up and spit out.
Among the pagans they’re a piece of junk.
They trotted off to Assyria:
Why, even wild donkeys stick to their own kind,
but donkey-Ephraim goes out and pays to get lovers.
Now, because of their whoring life among the pagans,
I’m going to gather them together and confront them.
They’re going to reap the consequences soon,
feel what it’s like to be oppressed by the big king.
11-14 “Ephraim has built a lot of altars,
and then uses them for sinning.
Can you believe it? Altars for sinning!
I write out my revelation for them in detail
and they pretend they can’t read it.
They offer sacrifices to me
and then they feast on the meat.
God is not pleased!
I’m fed up—I’ll keep remembering their guilt.
I’ll punish their sins
and send them back to Egypt.
Israel has forgotten his Maker
and gotten busy making palaces.
Judah has gone in for a lot of fortress cities.
I’m sending fire on their cities
to burn down their fortifications.”
Starved for God
9 1-6 Don’t waste your life in wild orgies, Israel.
Don’t party away your life with the heathen.
You walk away from your God at the drop of a hat
and like a whore sell yourself promiscuously
at every sex-and-religion party on the street.
All that party food won’t fill you up.
You’ll end up hungrier than ever.
At this rate you’ll not last long in God’s land:
Some of you are going to end up bankrupt in Egypt.
Some of you will be disillusioned in Assyria.
As refugees in Egypt and Assyria,
you won’t have much chance to worship God—
Sentenced to rations of bread and water,
and your souls polluted by the spirit-dirty air.
You’ll be starved for God,
exiled from God’s own country.
Will you be homesick for the old Holy Days?
Will you miss festival worship of God?
Be warned! When you escape from the frying pan of disaster,
you’ll fall into the fire of Egypt.
Egypt will give you a fine funeral!
What use will all your god-inspired silver be then
as you eke out a living in a field of weeds?
* * *
7-9 Time’s up. Doom’s at the doorstep.
It’s payday!
Did Israel bluster, “The prophet is crazy!
The ‘man of the Spirit’ is nuts!”?
Think again. Because of your great guilt,
you’re in big trouble.
The prophet is looking out for Ephraim,
working under God’s orders.
But everyone is trying to trip him up.
He’s hated right in God’s house, of all places.
The people are going from bad to worse,
rivaling that ancient and unspeakable crime at Gibeah.
God’s keeping track of their guilt.
He’ll make them pay for their sins.
They Took to Sin Like a Pig to Filth
10-13 “Long ago when I came upon Israel,
it was like finding grapes out in the desert.
When I found your ancestors, it was like finding
a fig tree bearing fruit for the first time.
But when they arrived at Baal-peor, that pagan shrine,
they took to sin like a pig to filth,
wallowing in the mud with their newfound friends.
Ephraim is fickle and scattered, like a flock of blackbirds,
their beauty dissipated in confusion and clamor,
Frenetic and noisy, frigid and barren,
and nothing to show for it—neither conception nor childbirth.
Even if they did give birth, I’d declare them
unfit parents and take away their children!
Yes indeed—a black day for them
when I turn my back and walk off!
I see Ephraim letting his children run wild.
He might just as well take them and kill them outright!”
14 Give it to them, God! But what?
Give them a dried-up womb and shriveled breasts.
15-16 “All their evil came out into the open
at the pagan shrine at Gilgal. Oh, how I hated them there!
Because of their evil practices,
I’ll kick them off my land.
I’m wasting no more love on them.
Their leaders are a bunch of rebellious adolescents.
Ephraim is hit hard—
roots withered, no more fruit.
Even if by some miracle they had children,
the dear babies wouldn’t live—I’d make sure of that!”
17 My God has washed his hands of them.
They wouldn’t listen.
They’re doomed to be wanderers,
vagabonds among the godless nations.
You Thought You Could Do It All on Your Own
10 1-2 Israel was once a lush vine,
bountiful in grapes.
The more lavish the harvest,
the more promiscuous the worship.
The more money they got,
the more they squandered on gods-in-their-own-image.
Their sweet smiles are sheer lies.
They’re guilty as sin.
God will smash their worship shrines,
pulverize their god-images.
3-4 They go around saying,
“Who needs a king?
We couldn’t care less about God,
so why bother with a king?
What difference would he make?”
They talk big,
lie through their teeth,
make deals.
But their high-sounding words
turn out to be empty words, litter in the gutters.
5-6 The people of Samaria travel over to Crime City
to worship the golden calf-god.
They go all out, prancing and hollering,
taken in by their showmen priests.
They act so important around the calf-god,
but are oblivious to the sham, the shame.
They have plans to take it to Assyria,
present it as a gift to the great king.
And so Ephraim makes a fool of himself,
disgraces Israel with his stupid idols.
7-8 Samaria is history. Its king
is a dead branch floating down the river.
Israel’s favorite sin centers
will all be torn down.
Thistles and crabgrass
will decorate their ruined altars.
Then they’ll say to the mountains, “Bury us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
9-10 You got your start in sin at Gibeah—
that ancient, unspeakable, shocking sin—
And you’ve been at it ever since.
And Gibeah will mark the end of it
in a war to end all the sinning.
I’ll come to teach them a lesson.
Nations will gang up on them,
Making them learn the hard way
the sum of Gibeah plus Gibeah.
11-15 Ephraim was a trained heifer
that loved to thresh.
Passing by and seeing her strong, sleek neck,
I wanted to harness Ephraim,
Put Ephraim to work in the fields—
Judah plowing, Jacob harrowing:
Sow righteousness,
reap love.
It’s time to till the ready earth,
it’s time to dig in with God,
Until he arrives
with righteousness ripe for harvest.
But instead you plowed wicked ways,
reaped a crop of evil and ate a salad of lies.
You thought you could do it all on your own,
flush with weapons and manpower.
But the volcano of war will erupt among your people.
All your defense posts will be leveled
As viciously as king Shalman
leveled the town of Beth-arba,
When mothers and their babies
were smashed on the rocks.
That’s what’s ahead for you, you so-called people of God,
because of your off-the-charts evil.
Some morning you’re going to wake up
and find Israel, king and kingdom, a blank—nothing.
Israel Played at Religion with Toy Gods
11 1-9 “When Israel was only a child, I loved him.
I called out, ‘My son!’—called him out of Egypt.
But when others called him,
he ran off and left me.
He worshiped the popular sex gods,
he played at religion with toy gods.
Still, I stuck with him. I led Ephraim.
I rescued him from human bondage,
But he never acknowledged my help,
never admitted that I was the one pulling his wagon,
That I lifted him, like a baby, to my cheek,
that I bent down to feed him.
Now he wants to go back to Egypt or go over to Assyria—
anything but return to me!
That’s why his cities are unsafe—the murder rate skyrockets
and every plan to improve things falls to pieces.
My people are hell-bent on leaving me.
They pray to god Baal for help.
He doesn’t lift a finger to help them.
But how can I give up on you, Ephraim?
How can I turn you loose, Israel?
How can I leave you to be ruined like Admah,
devastated like luckless Zeboim?
I can’t bear to even think such thoughts.
My insides churn in protest.
And so I’m not going to act on my anger.
I’m not going to destroy Ephraim.
And why? Because I am God and not a human.
I’m The Holy One and I’m here—in your very midst.
10-12 “The people will end up following God.
I will roar like a lion—
Oh, how I’ll roar!
My frightened children will come running from the west.
Like frightened birds they’ll come from Egypt,
from Assyria like scared doves.
I’ll move them back into their homes.”
God’s Word!
Soul-Destroying Lies
Ephraim tells lies right and left.
Not a word of Israel can be trusted.
Judah, meanwhile, is no better,
addicted to cheap gods.
* * *
12 1-5 Ephraim, obsessed with god-fantasies,
chases ghosts and phantoms.
He tells lies nonstop,
soul-destroying lies.
Both Ephraim and Judah made deals with Assyria
and tried to get an inside track with Egypt.
God is bringing charges against Israel.
Jacob’s children are hauled into court to be punished.
In the womb, that heel, Jacob, got the best of his brother.
When he grew up, he tried to get the best of God.
But God would not be bested.
God bested him.
Brought to his knees,
Jacob wept and prayed.
God found him at Bethel.
That’s where he spoke with him.
God is God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
God-Revealed, God-Known.
* * *
6 What are you waiting for? Return to your God!
Commit yourself in love, in justice!
Wait for your God,
and don’t give up on him—ever!
7-8 The businessmen engage in wholesale fraud.
They love to rip people off!
Ephraim boasted, “Look, I’m rich!
I’ve made it big!
And look how well I’ve covered my tracks:
not a hint of fraud, not a sign of sin!”
9-11 “But not so fast! I’m God, your God!
Your God from the days in Egypt!
I’m going to put you back to living in tents,
as in the old days when you worshiped in the wilderness.
I speak through the prophets
to give clear pictures of the way things are.
Using prophets, I tell revealing stories.
I show Gilead rampant with religious scandal
and Gilgal teeming with empty-headed religion.
I expose their worship centers as
stinking piles of garbage in their gardens.”
12-14 Are you going to repeat the life of your ancestor Jacob?
He ran off guilty to Aram,
Then sold his soul to get ahead,
and made it big through treachery and deceit.
Your real identity is formed through God-sent prophets,
who led you out of Egypt and served as faithful pastors.
As it is, Ephraim has continually
and inexcusably insulted God.
Now he has to pay for his life-destroying ways.
His Master will do to him what he has done.
Religion Customized to Taste
13 1-3 God once let loose against Ephraim
a terrifying sentence against Israel:
Caught and convicted
in the lewd sex-worship of Baal—they died!
And now they’re back in the sin business again,
manufacturing god-images they can use,
Religion customized to taste. Professionals see to it:
Anything you want in a god you can get.
Can you believe it? They sacrifice live babies to these dead gods—
kill living babies and kiss golden calves!
And now there’s nothing left to these people:
hollow men, desiccated women,
Like scraps of paper blown down the street,
like smoke in a gusty wind.
4-6 “I’m still your God,
the God who saved you out of Egypt.
I’m the only real God you’ve ever known.
I’m the one and only God who delivers.
I took care of you during the wilderness hard times,
those years when you had nothing.
I took care of you, took care of all your needs,
gave you everything you needed.
You were spoiled. You thought you didn’t need me.
You forgot me.
7-12 “I’ll charge them like a lion,
like a leopard stalking in the brush.
I’ll jump them like a sow grizzly robbed of her cubs.
I’ll rip out their guts.
Coyotes will make a meal of them.
Crows will clean their bones.
I’m going to destroy you, Israel.
Who is going to stop me?
Where is your trusty king you thought would save you?
Where are all the local leaders you wanted so badly?
All these rulers you insisted on having,
demanding, ‘Give me a king! Give me leaders!’?
Well, long ago I gave you a king, but I wasn’t happy about it.
Now, fed up, I’ve gotten rid of him.
I have a detailed record of your infidelities—
Ephraim’s sin documented and stored in a safe-deposit box.
13-15 “When birth pangs signaled it was time to be born,
Ephraim was too stupid to come out of the womb.
When the passage into life opened up,
he didn’t show.
Shall I intervene and pull them into life?
Shall I snatch them from a certain death?
Who is afraid of you, Death?
Who cares about your threats, Tomb?
In the end I’m abolishing regret,
banishing sorrow,
Even though Ephraim ran wild,
the black sheep of the family.
15-16 “God’s tornado is on its way,
roaring out of the desert.
It will devastate the country,
leaving a trail of ruin and wreckage.
The cities will be gutted,
dear possessions gone for good.
Now Samaria has to face the charges
because she has rebelled against her God:
Her people will be killed, babies smashed on the rocks,
pregnant women ripped open.”
Come Back! Return to Your God!
14 1-3 O Israel, come back! Return to your God!
You’re down but you’re not out.
Prepare your confession
and come back to God.
Pray to him, “Take away our sin,
accept our confession.
Receive as restitution
our repentant prayers.
Assyria won’t save us;
horses won’t get us where we want to go.
We’ll never again say ‘our god’
to something we’ve made or made up.
You’re our last hope. Is it not true
that in you the orphan finds mercy?”
* * *
4-8 “I will heal their waywardness.
I will love them lavishly. My anger is played out.
I will make a fresh start with Israel.
He’ll burst into bloom like a crocus in the spring.
He’ll put down deep oak tree roots,
he’ll become a forest of oaks!
He’ll become splendid—like a giant sequoia,
his fragrance like a grove of cedars!
Those who live near him will be blessed by him,
be blessed and prosper like golden grain.
Everyone will be talking about them,
spreading their fame as the vintage children of God.
Ephraim is finished with gods that are no-gods.
From now on I’m the one who answers and satisfies him.
I am like a luxuriant fruit tree.
Everything you need is to be found in me.”
* * *
9 If you want to live well,
make sure you understand all of this.
If you know what’s good for you,
you’ll learn this inside and out.
God’s paths get you where you want to go.
Right-living people walk them easily;
wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling.
Hosea 8-14
New International Version
Hosea 8-14
New International Version
Israel to Reap the Whirlwind
8 “Put the trumpet(A) to your lips!
An eagle(B) is over the house of the Lord
because the people have broken my covenant(C)
and rebelled against my law.(D)
2 Israel cries out to me,
‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’
3 But Israel has rejected what is good;
an enemy will pursue him.(E)
4 They set up kings without my consent;
they choose princes without my approval.(F)
With their silver and gold
they make idols(G) for themselves
to their own destruction.
5 Samaria, throw out your calf-idol!(H)
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of purity?(I)
6 They are from Israel!
This calf—a metalworker has made it;
it is not God.(J)
It will be broken in pieces,
that calf(K) of Samaria.(L)
7 “They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.(M)
The stalk has no head;
it will produce no flour.(N)
Were it to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.(O)
8 Israel is swallowed up;(P)
now she is among the nations
like something no one wants.(Q)
9 For they have gone up to Assyria(R)
like a wild donkey(S) wandering alone.
Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.(T)
10 Although they have sold themselves among the nations,
I will now gather them together.(U)
They will begin to waste away(V)
under the oppression of the mighty king.
11 “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
these have become altars for sinning.(W)
12 I wrote for them the many things of my law,
but they regarded them as something foreign.(X)
13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,
and though they eat(Y) the meat,
the Lord is not pleased with them.(Z)
Now he will remember(AA) their wickedness
and punish their sins:(AB)
They will return to Egypt.(AC)
14 Israel has forgotten(AD) their Maker(AE)
and built palaces;
Judah has fortified many towns.
But I will send fire on their cities
that will consume their fortresses.”(AF)
Punishment for Israel
9 Do not rejoice, Israel;
do not be jubilant(AG) like the other nations.
For you have been unfaithful(AH) to your God;
you love the wages of a prostitute(AI)
at every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
the new wine(AJ) will fail them.
3 They will not remain(AK) in the Lord’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt(AL)
and eat unclean food in Assyria.(AM)
4 They will not pour out wine offerings(AN) to the Lord,
nor will their sacrifices please(AO) him.
Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;(AP)
all who eat them will be unclean.(AQ)
This food will be for themselves;
it will not come into the temple of the Lord.(AR)
5 What will you do(AS) on the day of your appointed festivals,(AT)
on the feast days of the Lord?
6 Even if they escape from destruction,
Egypt will gather them,(AU)
and Memphis(AV) will bury them.(AW)
Their treasures of silver(AX) will be taken over by briers,
and thorns(AY) will overrun their tents.
7 The days of punishment(AZ) are coming,
the days of reckoning(BA) are at hand.
Let Israel know this.
Because your sins(BB) are so many
and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,(BC)
the inspired person a maniac.(BD)
8 The prophet, along with my God,
is the watchman over Ephraim,[a]
yet snares(BE) await him on all his paths,
and hostility in the house of his God.(BF)
9 They have sunk deep into corruption,(BG)
as in the days of Gibeah.(BH)
God will remember(BI) their wickedness
and punish them for their sins.(BJ)
10 “When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
it was like seeing the early fruit(BK) on the fig(BL) tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,(BM)
they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol(BN)
and became as vile as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory(BO) will fly away like a bird(BP)—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.(BQ)
12 Even if they rear children,
I will bereave(BR) them of every one.
Woe(BS) to them
when I turn away from them!(BT)
13 I have seen Ephraim,(BU) like Tyre,
planted in a pleasant place.(BV)
But Ephraim will bring out
their children to the slayer.”(BW)
14 Give them, Lord—
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.(BX)
15 “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,(BY)
I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,(BZ)
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;(CA)
all their leaders are rebellious.(CB)
16 Ephraim(CC) is blighted,
their root is withered,
they yield no fruit.(CD)
Even if they bear children,
I will slay(CE) their cherished offspring.”
17 My God will reject(CF) them
because they have not obeyed(CG) him;
they will be wanderers among the nations.(CH)
10 Israel was a spreading vine;(CI)
he brought forth fruit for himself.
As his fruit increased,
he built more altars;(CJ)
as his land prospered,(CK)
he adorned his sacred stones.(CL)
2 Their heart is deceitful,(CM)
and now they must bear their guilt.(CN)
The Lord will demolish their altars(CO)
and destroy their sacred stones.(CP)
3 Then they will say, “We have no king
because we did not revere the Lord.
But even if we had a king,
what could he do for us?”
4 They make many promises,
take false oaths(CQ)
and make agreements;(CR)
therefore lawsuits spring up
like poisonous weeds(CS) in a plowed field.
5 The people who live in Samaria fear
for the calf-idol(CT) of Beth Aven.[b](CU)
Its people will mourn over it,
and so will its idolatrous priests,(CV)
those who had rejoiced over its splendor,
because it is taken from them into exile.(CW)
6 It will be carried to Assyria(CX)
as tribute(CY) for the great king.(CZ)
Ephraim will be disgraced;(DA)
Israel will be ashamed(DB) of its foreign alliances.
7 Samaria’s king will be destroyed,(DC)
swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.
8 The high places(DD) of wickedness[c](DE) will be destroyed—
it is the sin of Israel.
Thorns(DF) and thistles will grow up
and cover their altars.(DG)
Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”(DH)
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”(DI)
9 “Since the days of Gibeah,(DJ) you have sinned,(DK) Israel,
and there you have remained.[d]
Will not war again overtake
the evildoers in Gibeah?
10 When I please, I will punish(DL) them;
nations will be gathered against them
to put them in bonds for their double sin.
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer
that loves to thresh;
so I will put a yoke(DM)
on her fair neck.
I will drive Ephraim,
Judah must plow,
and Jacob must break up the ground.
12 Sow(DN) righteousness(DO) for yourselves,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;(DP)
for it is time to seek(DQ) the Lord,
until he comes
and showers his righteousness(DR) on you.
13 But you have planted wickedness,
you have reaped evil,(DS)
you have eaten the fruit of deception.(DT)
Because you have depended on your own strength
and on your many warriors,(DU)
14 the roar of battle will rise against your people,
so that all your fortresses will be devastated(DV)—
as Shalman(DW) devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,
when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.(DX)
15 So will it happen to you, Bethel,
because your wickedness is great.
When that day dawns,
the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.(DY)
God’s Love for Israel
11 “When Israel was a child,(DZ) I loved(EA) him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.(EB)
2 But the more they were called,
the more they went away from me.[e](EC)
They sacrificed to the Baals(ED)
and they burned incense to images.(EE)
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;(EF)
but they did not realize
it was I who healed(EG) them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love.(EH)
To them I was like one who lifts
a little child to the cheek,
and I bent down to feed(EI) them.(EJ)
5 “Will they not return to Egypt(EK)
and will not Assyria(EL) rule over them
because they refuse to repent?(EM)
6 A sword(EN) will flash in their cities;
it will devour(EO) their false prophets
and put an end to their plans.
7 My people are determined to turn(EP) from me.(EQ)
Even though they call me God Most High,
I will by no means exalt them.
8 “How can I give you up,(ER) Ephraim?(ES)
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboyim?(ET)
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion(EU) is aroused.(EV)
9 I will not carry out my fierce anger,(EW)
nor will I devastate(EX) Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a man(EY)—
the Holy One(EZ) among you.
I will not come against their cities.
10 They will follow the Lord;
he will roar(FA) like a lion.(FB)
When he roars,
his children will come trembling(FC) from the west.(FD)
11 They will come from Egypt,
trembling like sparrows,
from Assyria,(FE) fluttering like doves.(FF)
I will settle them in their homes,”(FG)
declares the Lord.
Israel’s Sin
12 Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,(FH)
Israel with deceit.
And Judah is unruly against God,
even against the faithful(FI) Holy One.[f](FJ)
12 [g]1 Ephraim(FK) feeds on the wind;(FL)
he pursues the east wind all day
and multiplies lies and violence.(FM)
He makes a treaty with Assyria(FN)
and sends olive oil to Egypt.(FO)
2 The Lord has a charge(FP) to bring against Judah;(FQ)
he will punish(FR) Jacob[h] according to his ways
and repay him according to his deeds.(FS)
3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;(FT)
as a man he struggled(FU) with God.
4 He struggled with the angel and overcame him;
he wept and begged for his favor.
He found him at Bethel(FV)
and talked with him there—
5 the Lord God Almighty,
the Lord is his name!(FW)
6 But you must return(FX) to your God;
maintain love and justice,(FY)
and wait for your God always.(FZ)
7 The merchant uses dishonest scales(GA)
and loves to defraud.
8 Ephraim boasts,(GB)
“I am very rich; I have become wealthy.(GC)
With all my wealth they will not find in me
any iniquity or sin.”
9 “I have been the Lord your God
ever since you came out of Egypt;(GD)
I will make you live in tents(GE) again,
as in the days of your appointed festivals.
10 I spoke to the prophets,
gave them many visions
and told parables(GF) through them.”(GG)
11 Is Gilead wicked?(GH)
Its people are worthless!
Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?(GI)
Their altars will be like piles of stones
on a plowed field.(GJ)
12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram[i];(GK)
Israel served to get a wife,
and to pay for her he tended sheep.(GL)
13 The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,(GM)
by a prophet he cared for him.(GN)
14 But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger;
his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed(GO)
and will repay him for his contempt.(GP)
The Lord’s Anger Against Israel
13 When Ephraim spoke, people trembled;(GQ)
he was exalted(GR) in Israel.
But he became guilty of Baal worship(GS) and died.
2 Now they sin more and more;
they make(GT) idols for themselves from their silver,(GU)
cleverly fashioned images,
all of them the work of craftsmen.(GV)
It is said of these people,
“They offer human sacrifices!
They kiss[j](GW) calf-idols!(GX)”
3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears,(GY)
like chaff(GZ) swirling from a threshing floor,(HA)
like smoke(HB) escaping through a window.
4 “But I have been the Lord your God
ever since you came out of Egypt.(HC)
You shall acknowledge(HD) no God but me,(HE)
no Savior(HF) except me.
5 I cared for you in the wilderness,(HG)
in the land of burning heat.
6 When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they became proud;(HH)
then they forgot(HI) me.(HJ)
7 So I will be like a lion(HK) to them,
like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs,(HL)
I will attack them and rip them open;
like a lion(HM) I will devour them—
a wild animal will tear them apart.(HN)
9 “You are destroyed, Israel,
because you are against me,(HO) against your helper.(HP)
10 Where is your king,(HQ) that he may save you?
Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said,
‘Give me a king and princes’?(HR)
11 So in my anger I gave you a king,(HS)
and in my wrath I took him away.(HT)
12 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,
his sins are kept on record.(HU)
13 Pains as of a woman in childbirth(HV) come to him,
but he is a child without wisdom;
when the time(HW) arrives,
he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.(HX)
14 “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;(HY)
I will redeem them from death.(HZ)
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction?(IA)
“I will have no compassion,
15 even though he thrives(IB) among his brothers.
An east wind(IC) from the Lord will come,
blowing in from the desert;
his spring will fail
and his well dry up.(ID)
His storehouse will be plundered(IE)
of all its treasures.
16 The people of Samaria(IF) must bear their guilt,(IG)
because they have rebelled(IH) against their God.
They will fall by the sword;(II)
their little ones will be dashed(IJ) to the ground,
their pregnant women(IK) ripped open.”[k]
Repentance to Bring Blessing
14 [l]Return,(IL) Israel, to the Lord your God.
Your sins(IM) have been your downfall!(IN)
2 Take words with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to him:
“Forgive(IO) all our sins
and receive us graciously,(IP)
that we may offer the fruit of our lips.[m](IQ)
3 Assyria cannot save us;(IR)
we will not mount warhorses.(IS)
We will never again say ‘Our gods’(IT)
to what our own hands have made,(IU)
for in you the fatherless(IV) find compassion.”
4 “I will heal(IW) their waywardness(IX)
and love them freely,(IY)
for my anger has turned away(IZ) from them.
5 I will be like the dew(JA) to Israel;
he will blossom like a lily.(JB)
Like a cedar of Lebanon(JC)
he will send down his roots;(JD)
6 his young shoots will grow.
His splendor will be like an olive tree,(JE)
his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.(JF)
7 People will dwell again in his shade;(JG)
they will flourish like the grain,
they will blossom(JH) like the vine—
Israel’s fame will be like the wine(JI) of Lebanon.(JJ)
8 Ephraim, what more have I[n] to do with idols?(JK)
I will answer him and care for him.
I am like a flourishing juniper;(JL)
your fruitfulness comes from me.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 9:8 Or The prophet is the watchman over Ephraim, / the people of my God
- Hosea 10:5 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).
- Hosea 10:8 Hebrew aven, a reference to Beth Aven (a derogatory name for Bethel); see verse 5.
- Hosea 10:9 Or there a stand was taken
- Hosea 11:2 Septuagint; Hebrew them
- Hosea 11:12 In Hebrew texts this verse (11:12) is numbered 12:1.
- Hosea 12:1 In Hebrew texts 12:1-14 is numbered 12:2-15.
- Hosea 12:2 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives.
- Hosea 12:12 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia
- Hosea 13:2 Or “Men who sacrifice / kiss
- Hosea 13:16 In Hebrew texts this verse (13:16) is numbered 14:1.
- Hosea 14:1 In Hebrew texts 14:1-9 is numbered 14:2-10.
- Hosea 14:2 Or offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls
- Hosea 14:8 Or Hebrew; Septuagint What more has Ephraim
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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