Hosea 8
1 “To your mouth—a horn, As an eagle against the house of YHWH, Because they transgressed My covenant, And against My law they have rebelled.
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 To Me they cry, My God, we—Israel—have known You.
Israel calls out to me, “Our God, we know you!”
3 Israel has cast off good, an enemy pursues him.
But Israel has rejected what is good. An enemy will chase after them.
4 They have made kings, and not by Me, They have made princes, and I have not known, Their silver and their gold they have made to them idols, So that they are 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 Your calf has cast off, O Samaria, My anger has burned against them; Until when are they not capable of purity?
Samaria, I reject this calf idol you have made! My anger burns against them! How long will you be incapable of being good?
6 For even it [is] of Israel; a craftsman made it, And it [is] not God, For the calf of Samaria is fragments!
This idol is from Israel! A craftsman made it—it's not God! The calf of Samaria will be broken in pieces!
7 For wind they sow, and a windstorm they reap, Stalk it has none—a shoot not yielding grain, If so be it yield—strangers swallow it up.
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 been swallowed up, Now they have been among nations, As a vessel in which is no delight.
Israel is swallowed up; among the nations they are like something nobody wants.
9 For they have gone up [to] Asshur, A wild donkey alone by himself [is] Ephraim, They have hired lovers!
They have gone up to Assyria like a donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Also though they hire among nations, Now I gather them, and they are pained a little, From the burden of a king of princes.
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 multiplied altars to sin, They have been to him altars to sin.
Though Ephraim built many altars to make sin offerings, they instead became altars of sin!
12 I write for him numerous things of My law, As a strange thing they have been reckoned.
I wrote down for them the many aspects of my law, but they looked on them as foreign.
13 The sacrifices of My offerings! They sacrifice flesh, and they eat, YHWH has not accepted them, Now He remembers their iniquity, And inspects their sin, They return [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 And Israel forgets his Maker, and builds temples, And Judah has multiplied cities of defense, And I have sent a fire into his cities, And it has consumed their palaces!”
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.
