Hosea 12
1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and pursueth the east wind; the whole day he increaseth deceit and corruption; and a covenant do they make with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
[The leaders of] Israel are constantly wavering [about seeking help from other countries]. [Seeking their help is as useless as] [MET] chasing the wind. They pile up their lies and violent acts. [First, ] they make a treaty with Assyria, and [then they] send olive oil to [the rulers of] Egypt [to seek their help].
2 But with Judah also hath the Lord [to hold] a controversy; and to punish Jacob according to his ways, according to his doings will he recompense him.
Yahweh [says that he] will bring accusations against [the leaders of] Judah, and that he will punish [the descendants of] Jacob for what they have done.
3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his strength he strove with an angel.
[When Jacob was] in his mother’s womb, he grabbed his brother [Esau’s] heel [because he wanted to be born first]. When Jacob grew up, he wrestled with God.
4 Yea, he strove with an angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him: in Beth-el he should find him, and there he will speak with us.
He struggled with [the one who had appeared to him in the form of] an angel, and Jacob defeated him, but [then] he cried and asked the angel to bless him. [Later], God came to Jacob at Bethel and talked with him there.
5 And the Lord God of hosts, the Eternal One is his memorial.
[That was] the Commander of the armies of angels whose name is Yahweh [who talked with him]!
6 Therefore do thou return to thy God: keep goodness and justice, and wait on thy God continually.
But you [people of Israel] must return to your God! You must faithfully love [him], and you must do what is fair/just and always depend on him.
7 But like a merchant, who hath the balances of deceit in his hand, loving to overreach,
The merchants [among you] use scales that do not weigh correctly; they love/like to cheat people.
8 Did Ephraim say, I am certainly become rich, I have acquired substance unto myself: it is all through my labors; they will find no iniquity in me, that could be sin.
[The people of] Israel boast, saying “We are [very] rich [DOU]; and we got all that money by our own efforts, and without committing any sin.”
9 And I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: I will yet make thee dwell in tents, as in the days of antiquity.
“I am Yahweh your God, [the one who brought your ancestors] out of Egypt. [And some day] I will force you to live in tents again [like your ancestors did] when [they celebrated] the Festival [of Living in Temporary Shelters].
10 And I have spoken through the prophets, and I myself have multiplied visions, and by the means of the prophets have I spoken in similitudes.
[Many times] I spoke to the prophets, and I gave them many visions, and I gave them parables to tell [to the people].”
11 If in Gil'ad there was misfortune, [it is because] there was naught but idolatry; in Gilgal they sacrificed bullocks [to idols]: their altars also are as stone-heaps on the furrows of the fields.
[The people of] Gilead [city] are [RHQ] extremely wicked; they are worthless. The people sacrifice bulls in Gilgal [city], but their altars will [soon] become like [SIM] piles of stone [at the edge of] a plowed field.
12 And Jacob fled into the fields of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept [the flocks].
[Your ancestor] Jacob fled [from his brother Esau] and went to northwest Mesopotamia. He worked [for his uncle Laban for many years] to get a wife; he took care of [his uncle’s] sheep [to pay] for her.
13 And by a prophet did the Lord bring Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he guarded.
[Many years later, ] Yahweh enabled a prophet to bring the [ancestors of you] people of Israel here from Egypt; that prophet, [Moses], took care of them.
14 [Yet] Ephraim provoked [him] to anger most bitterly: therefore will his Lord cast his blood-guiltiness upon him, and his reproach will he recompense unto him.
[But now the people of] Israel have caused [Yahweh] to become very angry; Yahweh says that they deserve to die because they caused [many others] to die [MTY]; he will pay them back for the sins that they have committed against him and for insulting him.
