Hosea 6-10

New International Version - UK

⁴ ‘What can I do with you, Ephraim?
    What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears.
⁵ Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
    I killed you with the words of my mouth –
    then my judgments go forth like the sun.^[a]
6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
⁷ As at Adam,^[b] they have broken the covenant;
    they were unfaithful to me there.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    stained with footprints of blood.
⁹ As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,
    so do bands of priests;
they murder on the road to Shechem,
    carrying out their wicked schemes.
¹⁰ I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:
    there Ephraim is given to prostitution,
    Israel is defiled.

¹¹ ‘Also for you, Judah,
    a harvest is appointed.

‘Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,
7 whenever I would heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim are exposed
    and the crimes of Samaria revealed.
They practise deceit,
    thieves break into houses,
    bandits rob in the streets;
² but they do not realise
    that I remember all their evil deeds.
Their sins engulf them;
    they are always before me.

³ ‘They delight the king with their wickedness,
    the princes with their lies.
⁴ They are all adulterers,
    burning like an oven
whose fire the baker need not stir
    from the kneading of the dough till it rises.
⁵ On the day of the festival of our king
    the princes become inflamed with wine,
    and he joins hands with the mockers.
⁶ Their hearts are like an oven;
    they approach him with intrigue.
Their passion smoulders all night;
    in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are hot as an oven;
    they devour their rulers.
All their kings fall,
    and none of them calls on me.

⁸ ‘Ephraim mixes with the nations;
    Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over.
⁹ Foreigners sap his strength,
    but he does not realise it.
His hair is sprinkled with grey,
    but he does not notice.
¹⁰ Israel’s arrogance testifies against him,
    but despite all this
he does not return to the Lord his God
    or search for him.

¹¹ ‘Ephraim is like a dove,
    easily deceived and senseless –
now calling to Egypt,
    now turning to Assyria.
¹² When they go, I will throw my net over them;
    I will pull them down like the birds in the sky.
When I hear them flocking together,
    I will catch them.
¹³ Woe to them,
    because they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them,
    because they have rebelled against me!
I long to redeem them
    but they speak about me falsely.
¹⁴ They do not cry out to me from their hearts
    but wail on their beds.
They slash themselves,^[c] appealing to their gods
    for grain and new wine,
    but they turn away from me.
¹⁵ I trained them and strengthened their arms,
    but they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They do not turn to the Most High;
    they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
    because of their insolent words.
For this they will be ridiculed
    in the land of Egypt.

⁷ ‘They sow the wind
    and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
    it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
    foreigners would swallow it up.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up;
    now she is among the nations
    like something no one wants.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria
    like a wild donkey wandering alone.
    Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.
¹⁰ Although they have sold themselves among the nations,
    I will now gather them together.
They will begin to waste away
    under the oppression of the mighty king.

¹¹ ‘Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
    these have become altars for sinning.
¹² I wrote for them the many things of my law,
    but they regarded them as something foreign.
¹³ Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,
    and though they eat the meat,
    the Lord is not pleased with them.
Now he will remember their wickedness
    and punish their sins:
    they will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ Israel has forgotten his Maker
    and built palaces;
    Judah has fortified many towns.
But I will send fire on their cities
    that will consume their fortresses.’

⁵ What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals,
    on the feast days of the Lord?
⁶ Even if they escape from destruction,
    Egypt will gather them,
    and Memphis will bury them.
Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,
    and thorns will overrun their tents.
⁷ The days of punishment are coming,
    the days of reckoning are at hand.
    Let Israel know this.
Because your sins are so many
    and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,
    the inspired person a maniac.
⁸ The prophet, along with my God,
    is the watchman over Ephraim,^[d]
yet snares await him on all his paths,
    and hostility in the house of his God.
⁹ They have sunk deep into corruption,
    as in the days of Gibeah.
God will remember their wickedness
    and punish them for their sins.

¹⁰ ‘When I found Israel,
    it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
    it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig-tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
    they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
    and became as vile as the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird –
    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
¹² Even if they bring up children,
    I will bereave them of every one.
Woe to them
    when I turn away from them!
¹³ I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,
    planted in a pleasant place.
But Ephraim will bring out
    their children to the slayer.’

¹⁴ Give them, Lord –
    what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
    and breasts that are dry.

¹⁵ ‘Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,
    I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,
    I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;
    all their leaders are rebellious.
¹⁶ Ephraim is blighted,
    their root is withered,
    they yield no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
    I will slay their cherished offspring.’

¹⁷ My God will reject them
    because they have not obeyed him;
    they will be wanderers among the nations.

10 Israel was a spreading vine;
    he brought forth fruit for himself.
As his fruit increased,
    he built more altars;
as his land prospered,
    he adorned his sacred stones.
² Their heart is deceitful,
    and now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord will demolish their altars
    and destroy their sacred stones.

³ Then they will say, ‘We have no king
    because we did not revere the Lord.
But even if we had a king,
    what could he do for us?’
⁴ They make many promises,
    take false oaths
    and make agreements;
therefore lawsuits spring up
    like poisonous weeds in a ploughed field.
⁵ The people who live in Samaria fear
    for the calf-idol of Beth Aven.^[e]
Its people will mourn over it,
    and so will its idolatrous priests,
those who had rejoiced over its splendour,
    because it is taken from them into exile.
⁶ It will be carried to Assyria
    as tribute for the great king.
Ephraim will be disgraced;
    Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.
⁷ Samaria’s king will be destroyed,
    swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.
⁸ The high places of wickedness^[f] will be destroyed –
    it is the sin of Israel.
Thorns and thistles will grow up
    and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’
    and to the hills, ‘Fall on us!’

⁹ ‘Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel,
    and there you have remained.^[g]
Will not war again overtake
    the evildoers in Gibeah?
¹⁰ When I please, I will punish them;
    nations will be gathered against them
    to put them in bonds for their double sin.
¹¹ Ephraim is a trained heifer
    that loves to thresh;
so I will put a yoke
    on her fair neck.
I will drive Ephraim,
    Judah must plough,
    and Jacob must break up the ground.
¹² Sow righteousness for yourselves,
    reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unploughed ground;
    for it is time to seek the Lord,
until he comes
    and showers his righteousness on you.
¹³ But you have planted wickedness,
    you have reaped evil,
    you have eaten the fruit of deception.
Because you have depended on your own strength
    and on your many warriors,
¹⁴ the roar of battle will rise against your people,
    so that all your fortresses will be devastated –
as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,
    when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.
¹⁵ So will it happen to you, Bethel,
    because your wickedness is great.
When that day dawns,
    the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.