Hosea 8
1 Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.
Put the horn to your mouth. He comes like an eagle against the house of the Lord; because they have gone against my agreement, they have not kept my law.
2 Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!”
They will send up to me a cry for help: We, Israel, have knowledge of you, O God of Israel.
3 But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.
Israel has given up what is good; his haters will go after him.
4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.
They have put up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, but I had no knowledge of it; they have made images of silver and gold, so that they may be cut off.
5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
I will have nothing to do with your young ox, O Samaria; my wrath is burning against them; how long will it be before the children of Israel make themselves clean?
6 For this thing is from Israel— a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.
The workman made it, it is no god; the ox of Samaria will be broken into bits.
7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
For they have been planting the wind, and their fruit will be the storm; his grain has no stem, it will give no meal, and if it does, a strange nation will take it.
8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.
Israel has come to destruction; now they are among the nations like a cup in which there is no pleasure.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.
For they have gone up to Assyria like an ass going by himself; Ephraim has given money to get lovers.
10 Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.
But though they give money to the nations for help, still I will send them in all directions; and in a short time they will be without a king and rulers.
11 Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.
Because Ephraim has been increasing altars for sin, altars have become a cause of sin to him.
12 Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.
Though I put my law in writing for him in ten thousand rules, they are to him as a strange thing.
13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.
He gives the offerings of his lovers, and takes the flesh for food; but the Lord has no pleasure in them; now he will keep in mind their evil-doing and give them the punishment of their sins; they will go back to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.
For Israel has no memory of his Maker, and has put up the houses of kings; and Judah has made great the number of his walled towns. But I will send a fire on his towns and put an end to his great houses.
