Hosea 8
1 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.
Put a trumpet to your lips! An eagle swoops over the house of the Lord because they have broken my agreement and rebelled against my law.
2 They will send up to me a cry for help: We, Israel, have knowledge of you, O God of Israel.
Israel calls out to me, “Our God, we know you!”
3 Israel has given up what is good; his haters will go after him.
But Israel has rejected what is good. An enemy will chase after them.
4 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.
They appointed kings without my consent and chose princes without my knowledge. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction.
5 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?
Samaria, I reject this calf idol you have made! My anger burns against them! How long will you be incapable of being good?
6 The workman made it, it is no god; the ox of Samaria will be broken into bits.
This idol is from Israel! A craftsman made it—it's not God! The calf of Samaria will be broken in pieces!
7 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.
Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head of grain; it will produce no flour. Even if it did produce grain, foreigners would swallow it all up.
8 Israel has come to destruction; now they are among the nations like a cup in which there is no pleasure.
Israel is swallowed up; among the nations they are like something nobody wants.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria like an ass going by himself; Ephraim has given money to get lovers.
They have gone up to Assyria like a donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 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.
Even though they have hired allies among the nations, I will gather them together. Then they will writhe under the burden of the great king.
11 Because Ephraim has been increasing altars for sin, altars have become a cause of sin to him.
Though Ephraim built many altars to make sin offerings, they instead became altars of sin!
12 Though I put my law in writing for him in ten thousand rules, they are to him as a strange thing.
I wrote down for them the many aspects of my law, but they looked on them as foreign.
13 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.
They present me with their sacrifices, and they eat the meat, but I the Lord do not accept them. Now he will remember their wickedness, and punish them for their sins. They will return to Egypt.
14 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.
Israel has forgotten his maker, and built palaces; Judah has built many fortified cities. But I will rain fire down on their cities and burn up their fortresses.
