Hosea 4-7

Hosea 4

¹Give ear to the word of the Lord, O children of Israel; for the Lord has a cause against the people of this land, because there is no good faith in it, and no mercy and no knowledge of God in the land.

²There is cursing and broken faith, violent death and attacks on property, men are untrue in married life, houses are broken into, and there is blood touching blood.

³Because of this the land will be dry, and everyone living in it will be wasted away, with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven; even the fishes of the sea will be taken away.

⁴Let no man go to law or make protests, for your people are like those who go to law with a priest.

⁵You will not be able to keep on your feet by day, and by night the prophet will be falling down with you, and I will give your mother to destruction.

⁶Destruction has overtaken my people because they have no knowledge; because you have given up knowledge, I will give you up, so that you will be no priest to me, because you have not kept in mind the law of your God, I will not keep your children in my memory.

⁷Even while they were increasing in number they were sinning against me; I will let their glory be changed into shame.

⁸The sin of my people is like food to them; and their desire is for their wrongdoing.

⁹And the priest will be like the people; I will give them punishment for their evil ways, and the reward of their acts.

¹⁰They will have food, but they will not be full; they will be false to me, but they will not be increased, because they no longer give thought to the Lord.

¹¹Loose ways and new wine take away wisdom.

¹²My people get knowledge from their tree, and their rod gives them news; for a false spirit is the cause of their wandering, and they have been false to their God.

¹³They make offerings on the tops of mountains, burning perfumes in high places, under trees of every sort, because their shade is good: and so your daughters are given up to loose ways and your brides are false to their husbands.

¹⁴I will not give punishment to your daughters or your brides for their evil behaviour; for they make themselves separate with loose women, and make offerings with those who are used for sex purposes in the worship of the gods: the people who have no wisdom will be sent away.

¹⁵Do not you, O Israel, come into error; do not you, O Judah, come to Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven, or take an oath, By the living Lord.

¹⁶For Israel is uncontrolled, like a cow which may not be controlled; now will the Lord give them food like a lamb in a wide place.

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to false gods; let him be.

¹⁸Their drink has become bitter; they are completely false; her rulers take pleasure in shame.

¹⁹They are folded in the skirts of the wind; they will be shamed because of their offerings.

Hosea 5

¹Give ear to this, O priests; give attention, O Israel, and you, family of the king; for you are to be judged; you have been a deceit at Mizpah and a net stretched out on Tabor.

²They have gone deep in the evil ways of Shittim, but I am the judge of all.

³I have knowledge of Ephraim, and Israel is not secret from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have been false to me, Israel has become unclean.

⁴Their works will not let them come back to their God, for a false spirit is in them and they have no knowledge of the Lord.

⁵And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; and Ephraim will have a fall through his sins, and the fall of Judah will be the same as theirs.

⁶They will go, with their flocks and their herds, in search of the Lord, but they will not see him; he has taken himself out of their view.

⁷They have been false to the Lord; they have given birth to strange children; now the new moon will make them waste with their fields.

⁸Let the horn be sounded in Gibeah and in Ramah; give a loud cry in Beth-aven, They are after you, O Benjamin.

⁹Ephraim will become a waste in the day of punishment; I have given knowledge among the tribes of Israel of what is certain.

¹⁰The rulers of Judah are like those who take away a landmark; I will let loose my wrath on them like flowing water.

¹¹Ephraim is troubled; he is crushed by his judges, because he took pleasure in walking after deceit.

¹²And so to Ephraim I am like a wasting insect, and a destruction to the children of Judah.

¹³When Ephraim saw his disease and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king; but he is not able to make you well or give you help for your wound.

¹⁴For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the children of Judah; I, even I, will give him wounds and go away; I will take him away, and there will be no helper.

¹⁵I will go back to my place till they are made waste; in their trouble they will go after me early and will make search for me.

Hosea 6

¹Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help.

²After two days he will give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and we will be living before him.

³And let us have knowledge, let us go after the knowledge of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.

⁴O Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O Judah, what am I to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew which goes early away.

⁵So I have had it cut in stones; I gave them teaching by the words of my mouth;

⁶Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned offerings.

⁷But like a man, they have gone against the agreement; there they were false to me.

⁸Gilead is a town of evil-doers, marked with blood.

⁹And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are working with an evil design.

¹⁰In Israel I have seen a very evil thing; there false ways are seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean;

¹¹And Judah has put up disgusting images for himself.

Hosea 7

¹When my desire was for the fate of my people to be changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of outlaws takes property by force in the streets.

²And they do not say to themselves that I keep in mind all their sin; now their evil acts come round them on every side; they are before my face.

³In their sin they make a king for themselves, and rulers in their deceit.

⁴They are all untrue; they are like a burning oven; the bread-maker does not make up the fire from the time when the paste is mixed till it is leavened.

⁵On the day of our king, the rulers made him ill with the heat of wine; his hand was stretched out with the men of pride.

⁶For they have made their hearts ready like an oven, while they are waiting secretly; their wrath is sleeping all night; in the morning it is burning like a flaming fire.

⁷They are all heated like an oven, and they put an end to their judges; all their kings have been made low; not one among them makes prayer to me.

⁸Ephraim is mixed with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹Men from other lands have made waste his strength, and he is not conscious of it; grey hairs have come on him here and there, and he has no knowledge of it.

¹⁰And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; but for all this, they have not gone back to the Lord their God, or made search for him.

¹¹And Ephraim is like a foolish dove, without wisdom; they send out their cry to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

¹²When they go, my net will be stretched out over them; I will take them like the birds of heaven, I will give them punishment, I will take them away in the net for their sin.

¹³May trouble be theirs! for they have gone far away from me; and destruction, for they have been sinning against me; I was ready to be their saviour, but they said false words against me.

¹⁴And they have not made prayer to me in their hearts, but they make loud cries on their beds; they are cutting themselves for food and wine, they are turned against me.

¹⁵Though I have given training and strength to their arms, they have evil designs against me.

¹⁶They have gone to what is of no value; they are like a false bow; their captains will come to destruction by the sword, and their ruler by my wrath; for this, the land of Egypt will make sport of them.