Hosea 12

1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind; Every day he multiplieth falsehood and violence; They make a league with Assyria, And oil is carried into Egypt.

2 Therefore Jehovah hath a controversy with Judah. And he will punish Jacob for his ways, And requite him according to his doings.

3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel, And in his strength he contended with God;

4 Yea, he contended with the angel, and prevailed; He wept, and made supplication to him. At Bethel he found him, And there he spake with us.

5 And Jehovah, the God of hosts, Jehovah is his name.

6 Therefore turn thou to thy God; Observe mercy and justice, And hope in thy God always!

7 He is a Canaanite; in his hands are the balances of deceit; He loveth to oppress.

8 Yet Ephraim saith, Lo, I have become rich; I have found myself substance; In all my earnings can be found no transgression in which there is guilt.

9 Yet I, Jehovah, have been thy God from the land of Egypt; I will again cause thee to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.

10 I have also spoken to the prophets, And I have given many visions, And by the prophets I have used similitudes.

11 Behold, Gilead is full of iniquity; Surely they have become corrupt; In Gilgal they sacrifice oxen, And their altars are like the heaps in the furrows of the field.

12 Jacob fled into the country of Syria, And Israel served for a wife, And for a wife he kept sheep.

13 By a prophet Jehovah brought up Israel out of Egypt, And by a prophet was he preserved.

14 Ephraim hath provoked his Lord most bitterly; Therefore will he leave his blood upon him, And recompense to him his reproach.