< Osee 10 >
1 Israel is a vine with goodly branches, her fruit is abundant: according to the multitude of her fruits she has multiplied [her] altars; according to the wealth of his land, he has set up pillars.
2 They have divided their hearts; now shall they be utterly destroyed: he shall dig down their altars, their pillars shall mourn.
3 Because now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord:
4 and what should a king do for us, speaking false professions [as his] words? he will make a covenant: judgment shall spring up as a weed on the soil of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall dwell near the calf of the house of On; for the people of it mourned for it: and as they provoked him, they shall rejoice at his glory, because he has departed from them.
6 And having bound it for the Assyrians, they carried it away as presents to king Jarim: Ephraim shall receive a gift, and Israel shall be ashamed of his counsel.
7 Samaria has cast off her king as a twig on the surface of the water.
8 And the altars of On, the sins of Israel, shall be taken away: thorns and thistles shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
9 From the time the hills [existed] Israel has sinned: there they stood: war [waged] against the children of iniquity
10 to chastise them shall not overtake them on the hill, the nations shall be gathered against them, when they are chastened for their two sins,
11 Ephraim is a heifer taught to love victory, but I will come upon the fairest part of her neck: I will mount Ephraim; I will pass over Juda in silence; Jacob shall prevail against him.
12 Sow to yourselves for righteousness, gather in for the fruit of life: light ye for yourselves the light of knowledge; seek the Lord till the fruits of righteousness come upon you.
13 Wherefore have ye passed over ungodliness in silence, and reaped the sins of it? ye have eaten false fruit; for thou has trusted in thy sins, in the abundance of thy power.
14 Therefore shall destruction rise up among thy people, and all thy strong places shall be ruined: as a prince Solomon [departed] out of the house of Jeroboam, in the days of battle they dashed the mother to the ground upon the children,
15 thus will I do to you, O house of Israel, because of the unrighteousness of your sins.