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.
Let there be a trumpet in thy throat like an eagle upon the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and have violated my law.
2 Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!”
They shall call upon me: O my God, we, Israel, know thee.
3 But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.
Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, the enemy shall pursue 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 reigned, but not by me: they have been princes, and I knew not: of their silver, and their gold they have made idols to themselves, that they might perish.
5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off, my wrath is kindled against them. How long will they be incapable of being cleansed?
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.
For itself also is the invention of Israel: a workman made it, and it is no god: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders’ webs.
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 shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.
8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.
Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations like an unclean vessel.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his 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 even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the princes.
11 Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.
Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin: altars are become to him unto sin.
12 Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.
I shall write to him my manifold laws, which have been accounted as foreign.
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.
They shall offer victims, they shall sacrifice flesh, and shall eat it, and the Lord will not receive them: now will he remember their iniquity, and will visit their sins: they shall return 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.
And Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and hath built temples: and Juda hath built many fenced cities: and I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the houses thereof.
