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 trumpet to thy mouth! Like an eagle cometh an enemy against the house of Jehovah, Because they have transgressed my covenant, And have rebelled against my law.
2 Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!”
They shall say to me, My God, we know thee, we, thine Israel!
3 But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.
Israel hath cast away what 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 set up kings, but not by me; They have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made themselves idols, That they may be brought to destruction.
5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
An abomination is thy calf, O Samaria! Mine anger is kindled against them; How long will it be ere they can attain to purity!
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 from Israel it came; The workman made it, and it is no God; Yea, into fragments shall the calf of Samaria be broken.
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.
They have sown the wind, And they shall reap the whirlwind. They shall have no standing harvest; The ear shall yield no meal; If perchance it yield, strangers shall devour it.
8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.
Israel is swallowed up; Soon shall they become among the nations As a vessel which no one desireth.
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 a solitary wild-ass; Ephraim hireth 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 hire among the nations, Soon will I gather the nations against them; Then shall they rest a little while from the burden of their king, and their princes!
11 Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.
Ephraim hath built many altars for sin, Therefore shall he have altars for sin.
12 Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.
Though I write for him many laws, They are accounted 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.
As to the sacrifices which they should offer me, they slay flesh and eat it; Jehovah hath no pleasure in them. Now will he remember their iniquity, And punish their sins; To Egypt shall they return.
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 hath forgotten his Maker, and builded palaces, And Judah hath multiplied fenced cities; But I will send a fire upon his cities, And it shall devour his palaces.
