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 thy throat like an eagle upon the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and have violated my law.
2 My Israeli people cry out to me, ‘Our God, we know that you are our God!’
They shall call upon me: O my God, we, Israel, know thee.
3 But because the Israeli people have rejected what is good, their enemies will pursue them.
Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, the enemy shall pursue 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: they have been princes, and I knew not: of their silver, and their gold they have made idols to themselves, that they might perish.
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?
Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off, my wrath is kindled 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 itself also is the invention of Israel: a workman made it, and it is no god: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders’ webs.
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 shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should yield, strangers shall 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 is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations 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 are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts 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 though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the princes.
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.
Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin: altars are become to him unto sin.
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 shall write to him my manifold laws, which have been accounted as foreign.
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 shall offer victims, they shall sacrifice flesh, and shall eat it, and the Lord will not receive them: now will he remember their iniquity, and will visit their sins: they shall return 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 hath forgotten his Maker, and hath built temples: and Juda hath built many fenced cities: and I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the houses thereof.
