Hosea 12

1 [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].

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 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.

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

3 [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.

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

4 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.

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 [That was] the Commander of the armies of angels whose name is Yahweh [who talked with him]!

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

6 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.

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

7 The merchants [among you] use scales that do not weigh correctly; they love/like to cheat people.

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

8 [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.”

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 “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].

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 [Many times] I spoke to the prophets, and I gave them many visions, and I gave them parables to tell [to the people].”

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

11 [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.

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 [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.

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

13 [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.

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

14 [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.

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