Hosea 8
1 Put the trumpet to thy mouth! Like an eagle cometh an enemy against the house of Jehovah, Because they have transgressed my covenant, And have rebelled against my law.
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 They shall say to me, My God, we know thee, we, thine Israel!
Israel calls out to me, “Our God, we know you!”
3 Israel hath cast away what is good; The enemy shall pursue him.
But Israel has rejected what is good. An enemy will chase after them.
4 They have set up kings, but not by me; They have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made themselves idols, That they may be brought to destruction.
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 An abomination is thy calf, O Samaria! Mine anger is kindled against them; How long will it be ere they can attain to 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 from Israel it came; The workman made it, and it is no God; Yea, into fragments shall the calf of Samaria be broken.
This idol is from Israel! A craftsman made it—it's not God! The calf of Samaria will be broken in pieces!
7 They have sown the wind, And they shall reap the whirlwind. They shall have no standing harvest; The ear shall yield no meal; If perchance it yield, strangers shall devour it.
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 is swallowed up; Soon shall they become among the nations As a vessel which no one desireth.
Israel is swallowed up; among the nations they are like something nobody wants.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a solitary wild-ass; Ephraim hireth lovers;
They have gone up to Assyria like a donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 But though they hire among the nations, Soon will I gather the nations against them; Then shall they rest a little while from the burden of their king, and their 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 Ephraim hath built many altars for sin, Therefore shall he have altars for sin.
Though Ephraim built many altars to make sin offerings, they instead became altars of sin!
12 Though I write for him many laws, They are accounted as a strange thing;
I wrote down for them the many aspects of my law, but they looked on them as foreign.
13 As to the sacrifices which they should offer me, they slay flesh and eat it; Jehovah hath no pleasure in them. Now will he remember their iniquity, And punish their sins; To Egypt shall they return.
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 For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and builded palaces, And Judah hath multiplied fenced cities; But I will send a fire upon his cities, And it shall devour his 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.
