Hosea 8
1 [Yahweh said to me], “Blow [MTY] your trumpet [to warn the people]! My people have rejected the agreement that I made with them, and they have rebelled against [obeying] my laws. Therefore, [their enemies] are swooping down on my people’s country like [SIM] an eagle.
Let there be a trumpet in your throat, like an eagle over the house of the Lord, on behalf of those who have transgressed my covenant and violated my law.
2 My Israeli people cry out to me, ‘Our God, we know that you are our God!’
They will call on me: “O my God, we, Israel, know you.”
3 But because the Israeli people have rejected what is good, their enemies will pursue them.
Israel has thrown away goodness; the enemy will overtake him.
4 The Israel people appointed [their last three] kings, but they did not ask me if I agreed to [what they were doing]. They chose their own leaders without asking if I would approve of them. They used their own silver and gold to make for themselves idols, and doing that led them to be destroyed.
They have reigned, but not by me. Leaders have emerged, and I did not recognize them. Their silver and their gold, they have made into idols for themselves, so that they might cross over.
5 You people of Samaria, throw away your [idol that resembles a] calf! I am extremely angry with you people! How long [RHQ] will you [do things that cause] you to be unacceptable to me?
Your calf, Samaria, has been rejected. My fury has been enraged against them. How long will they be incapable of being cleansed?
6 [Someone in] Israel made that idol for you; [but I am] God and it is not. So that idol of a calf in Samaria must be smashed to pieces.
For it is itself also from Israel: a workman made it, and it is not God. For the calf of Samaria will be used for the webs of spiders.
7 [The foolish thing that the people of Israel have done is like] [MET] trying to plant wind; but what they harvest will be like [MET] a whirlwind. So the grain that they planted will have no heads [on the stalks], and as a result [there will be no grain] from which to make flour. And if it did produce good grain, foreigners would [come and] steal it.
For they will sow wind and reap a whirlwind. It does not have a firm stalk; the bud will yield no grain. But if it does yield, strangers will eat it.
8 [The people of] Israel will be defeated [MET] [by their enemies]; they will be [scattered] among other nations and become worthless.
Israel has been devoured. Now, among the nations, it has become like an unclean vessel.
9 Like [MET] donkeys that are looking for mates, they have requested [help] from Assyria; they paid money to [the leaders of Assyria] in order to [persuade those leaders to] protect them.
For they have gone up to Assur, a wild ass alone by himself. Ephraim has given presents to his lovers.
10 But although they have agreed to pay money each year to [the leaders of] those countries, I will soon gather them together [to punish them]. The great King [of Assyria] will cause them to suffer greatly.
But even when they will have brought the nations together for the sake of money, now I will assemble them. And they will rest for a little while from the burden of the king and the leaders.
11 Although [the people of] Israel built many altars to present offerings [to their idols] to take away [their guilt for] sinning, those altars have become places where they commit [more] sins.
For Ephraim multiplied altars to sin, and sanctuaries have become an offense for him.
12 I wrote many laws for them, but they disregarded them, saying that [they did not have to obey them because] they were different from laws that they had known previously.
I will write to him my intricate laws, which have been treated like strangers.
13 They offer sacrifices to me, and they eat [some of] the meat of those sacrifices, [which is what I permitted them to do]. But I, Yahweh, am not pleased with those sacrifices. I remember the evil things that they have done, and I will punish them for the sins that they have committed: I will force them to [go to other countries] [and become slaves like they were] [MET] in Egypt.
They will offer victims, they will immolate flesh and will eat, and the Lord will not accept them. For now he will remember their iniquity, and he will repay their sins: they will be turned back to Egypt.
14 [The people of] Israel have abandoned/forgotten me, the one who created their [nation]; they have built palaces, and [the people of] Judah have built walls around many towns. But I will send a fire that will destroy all their cities and their fortresses.”
And Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built shrines. And Judah has increased its fortified cities. And I will send fire upon his cities, and it will devour its structures.
