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.

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.

3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his strength he strove with an angel.

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.

5 And the Lord God of hosts, the Eternal One is his memorial.

6 Therefore do thou return to thy God: keep goodness and justice, and wait on thy God continually.

7 But like a merchant, who hath the balances of deceit in his hand, loving to overreach,

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.

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.

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.

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.

12 And Jacob fled into the fields of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept [the flocks].

13 And by a prophet did the Lord bring Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he guarded.

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.