Hosea 8-9

Common English Bible

8 Put a trumpet to your lips!
        It’s as if a bird of prey has flown over the Lord’s house,
    because they have broken my covenant,
        and have not kept my Instruction.
² Israel cries to me,
        “My God, we know you!”
³ Israel has turned away from the good;
        the enemy will pursue him.
⁴ They set up kings, but not through me;
        they chose princes, but without my knowledge.
    With silver and gold they crafted idols
        for their own destruction.
⁵ Your calf is rejected, Samaria.
        My anger burns against them.
        How long will they remain guilty?
⁶ The calf is from Israel,
        a person made it;
        it is not God.
    The calf of Samaria will be smashed.
⁷ Because they sow the wind,
        they will get the whirlwind.
    Standing grain, but no fresh growth;
        it will yield no meal;
    if it were to yield,
        strangers would devour it.

⁸ Israel is swallowed up;
        among the nations, they are now
        like a useless jar.
⁹ They have gone up to Assyria,
        a wild ass wandering alone;
        Ephraim has hired lovers.
¹⁰ Though they have bargained with the nations,
        I will now gather them up.
    They will soon be diminished
        due to the burden of kings and princes.
¹¹ When Ephraim added more altars to take away sin,
        they became altars to him for sinning.
¹² Even though I write out for him a large number of my instructions,
        they are regarded as strange.
¹³ Though they offer choice sacrifices,^[a]
        though they eat flesh,
        the Lord doesn’t accept 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;
    and Judah has multiplied walled cities;
        but I will send a fire upon his cities,
        and it will devour his fortresses.

9 Don’t rejoice, Israel!
        Don’t celebrate as other nations do;
        for as whores you have gone away from your God.
        You have loved a prostitute’s pay
            on all threshing floors of grain.
² Threshing floor and wine vat won’t feed them;
        the new wine will fail them.
³ They won’t remain in the land of the Lord;
        but Ephraim will return to Egypt,
        and in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
⁴ They won’t pour wine as an offering to the Lord;
        their sacrifices won’t please him.
    Such sacrifices will be like food for those who touch the dead;
        all who eat of it will be unclean;
        their bread will be for their hunger alone;
            it will not come to the Lord’s house.
⁵ What will you do on the day of appointed festival,
        on the day of the Lord’s festival?
⁶ Even if they escape destruction,
        Egypt will gather them,
        Memphis will bury them.
    Briars will possess their precious things of silver;^[b]
        thorns will be in their tents.
⁷ The days of punishment have come;
        the days of judgment have arrived;
    Israel cries,
        “The prophet is a fool,
        the spiritual man is mad!”
    Because of your great wickedness,
        your rejection of me is great.

⁸ The prophet is God’s watchman
    looking over Ephraim,
    yet a hunter’s trap is set, covering all his ways,
        and rejection is in his God’s house.
⁹ They have corrupted themselves terribly
        as in the days of Gibeah;
    he will remember their wickedness;
        he will punish their sins.