Hosea 4-7

Hosea 4

¹Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

²There is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

³Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

⁴Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

⁵And thou shalt stumble in the day, and the prophet also shall stumble with thee in the night; and I will destroy thy mother.

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

⁷As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.

⁸They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

⁹And it shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and will reward them their doings.

¹⁰And they shall eat, and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.

¹¹Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the understanding.

¹²My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredom hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

¹³They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters commit whoredom, and your brides commit adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for they themselves go apart with whores, and they sacrifice with the harlots: and the people that doth not understand shall be overthrown.

¹⁵Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-aven, nor swear, As the LORD liveth.

¹⁶For Israel hath behaved himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer: now will the LORD feed them as a lamb in a large place.

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.

¹⁸Their drink is become sour: they commit whoredom continually; her rulers dearly love shame.

¹⁹The wind hath wrapped her up in its wings; and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 5

¹Hear this, O ye priests, and hearken, ye house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king, for unto you pertain the judgment; for ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

²And the revolters are gone deep in making slaughter; but I am a rebuker of them all.

³I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou hast committed whoredom, Israel is defiled.

⁴Their doings will not suffer them to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD.

⁵And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their iniquity; Judah also shall stumble with them.

⁶They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him: he hath withdrawn himself from them.

⁷They have dealt treacherously against the LORD; for they have borne strange children: now shall the new moon devour them with their fields.

⁸Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: sound an alarm at Beth-aven; behind thee, O Benjamin.

⁹Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

¹⁰The princes of Judah are like them that remove the landmark: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; because he was content to walk after the command.

¹²Therefore am I unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither shall he cure you of your wound.

¹⁴For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.

¹⁵I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly.

Hosea 6

¹Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

²After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him.

³And let us know, let us follow on to know the LORD; his going forth is sure as the morning: and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth.

⁴O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth early away.

⁵Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

⁶For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁷But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

⁸Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, it is stained with blood.

⁹And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem; yea, they have committed lewdness.

¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen an horrible thing: there whoredom is found in Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

¹¹Also, O Judah, there is an harvest appointed for thee, when I bring again the captivity of my people.

Hosea 7

¹When I would heal Israel, then is the iniquity of Ephraim discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood: and the thief entereth in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

²And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now have their own doings beset them about; they are before my face.

³They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

⁴They are all adulterers; they are as an oven heated by the baker; he ceaseth to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it be leavened.

⁵On the day of our king the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

⁶For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

⁷They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

⁸Ephraim, he mixeth himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it not.

¹⁰And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: yet they have not returned unto the LORD their God, nor sought him, for all this.

¹¹And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call unto Egypt, they go to Assyria.

¹²When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven: I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

¹³Woe unto them! for they have wandered from me; destruction unto them! for they have trespassed against me: though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

¹⁴And they have not cried unto me with their heart, but they howl upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, they rebel against me.

¹⁵Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

¹⁶They return, but not to him that is on high; they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.