< Osee 12 >
1 But Ephraim is an evil spirit, he has chased the east wind all the day: he has multiplied empty and vain things, and made a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil has gone in the way of traffic into Egypt.
2 And the Lord [has] a controversy with Juda, in order to punish Jacob: according to his ways and according to his practices will he recompense him.
3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his labours he had power with God.
4 And he prevailed with the angel and was strong: they wept, and intreated me: they found me in the house of On, and there [a word] was spoken to them.
5 But the Lord God Almighty shall be his memorial.
6 Thou therefore shalt return to thy God: keep thou mercy and judgment, and draw nigh to thy God continually.
7 [As for] Chanaan, in his hand is a balance of unrighteousness: he has loved to tyrannize.
8 And Ephraim said, Nevertheless I am rich, I have found refreshment to myself. None of his labours shall be found [available] to him, by reason of the sins which he has committed.
9 But I the Lord thy God brought thee up out of the land of Egypt: I will yet cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, according to the days of the feast.
10 And I will speak to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and by the means of the prophets I was represented.
11 If Galaad exists not, then the chiefs in Galaad when they sacrificed were false, and their altars were as heaps on the ground of the field.
12 And Jacob retreated into the plain of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and waited for a wife.
13 And the Lord brought Israel out of the land of Egypt by a prophet, and by a prophet was he preserve.
14 Ephraim was angry and excited, therefore his blood shall be poured out upon him, and the Lord shall recompense to him his reproach.