Hosea 12:9-11

The Voice

⁹Eternal One: I’m the Eternal One; I’ve been your True God ever since you left Egypt.
I’m going to make you live in tents again,
As you do in remembrance during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Every year, the Israelites live in tents for one week as part of the Feast of Tabernacles. This festival reminds the people of God’s constant protection of their ancestors as they wandered for a generation in the Sinai desert. However, the Israelites won’t enjoy their coming time in tents. Living in tents will mean they’ve lost all the wealth and security they built up in their solid houses and cities; they’ll be nomads wandering the earth, but this time without God’s constant protection. In a reversal of the Exodus story, these wanderings will be a prelude to bondage in a foreign nation, where they will be slaves without the ear of God, as their ancestors were in Egypt.

¹⁰Eternal One: I’ve spoken to the prophets; I’ve given them many visions,
        and I’ve told you parables through them.
¹¹    Because Gilead is so wicked, it is worthless.^[a]
        They sacrifice bulls at the cultic center of Gilgal,
    But their altars will be heaps of stone next to a plowed field.