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.
“To your mouth—a horn, As an eagle against the house of YHWH, Because they transgressed My covenant, And against My law they have rebelled.
2 My Israeli people cry out to me, ‘Our God, we know that you are our God!’
To Me they cry, My God, we—Israel—have known You.
3 But because the Israeli people have rejected what is good, their enemies will pursue them.
Israel has cast off good, an enemy pursues 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 made kings, and not by Me, They have made princes, and I have not known, Their silver and their gold they have made to them idols, So that they are cut off.
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 has cast off, O Samaria, My anger has burned against them; Until when are they not capable of purity?
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 even it [is] of Israel; a craftsman made it, And it [is] not God, For the calf of Samaria is fragments!
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 wind they sow, and a windstorm they reap, Stalk it has none—a shoot not yielding grain, If so be it yield—strangers swallow it up.
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 swallowed up, Now they have been among nations, As a vessel in which is no delight.
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] Asshur, A wild donkey alone by himself [is] Ephraim, They have hired 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.
Also though they hire among nations, Now I gather them, and they are pained a little, From the burden of a king of 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 multiplied altars to sin, They have been to him altars to 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 write for him numerous things of My law, As a strange thing they have been reckoned.
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.
The sacrifices of My offerings! They sacrifice flesh, and they eat, YHWH has not accepted them, Now He remembers their iniquity, And inspects their sin, They 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 forgets his Maker, and builds temples, And Judah has multiplied cities of defense, And I have sent a fire into his cities, And it has consumed their palaces!”
