Hosea 5:6-9

The Message

^5-7 “Bloated by arrogance, big as a house,
    they’re a public disgrace,
The lot of them—Israel, Ephraim, Judah—
    lurching and weaving down their guilty streets.
When they decide to get their lives together
    and go off looking for God once again,
They’ll find it’s too late.
    I, God, will be long gone.
They’ve played fast and loose with me for too long,
    filling the country with their bastard offspring.
A plague of locusts will
    devastate their violated land.

^8-9 “Blow the ram’s horn shofar in Gibeah,
    the bugle in Ramah!
Signal the invasion of Sin City!
    Scare the daylights out of Benjamin!
Ephraim will be left wasted,
    a lifeless moonscape.
I’m telling it straight, the unvarnished truth,
    to the tribes of Israel.