Hosea 7
New Living Translation
Israel’s Love for Wickedness
7 “I want to heal Israel, but its[a] sins are too great.
Samaria is filled with liars.
Thieves are on the inside
and bandits on the outside!
2 Its people don’t realize
that I am watching them.
Their sinful deeds are all around them,
and I see them all.
3 “The people entertain the king with their wickedness,
and the princes laugh at their lies.
4 They are all adulterers,
always aflame with lust.
They are like an oven that is kept hot
while the baker is kneading the dough.
5 On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,
carousing with those who mock them.
6 Their hearts are like an oven
blazing with intrigue.
Their plot smolders[b] through the night,
and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.
7 Burning like an oven,
they consume their leaders.
They kill their kings one after another,
and no one cries to me for help.
8 “The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,
making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!
9 Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength,
but they don’t even know it.
Their hair is gray,
but they don’t realize they’re old and weak.
10 Their arrogance testifies against them,
yet they don’t return to the Lord their God
or even try to find him.
11 “The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves,
first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.
12 But as they fly about,
I will throw my net over them
and bring them down like a bird from the sky.
I will punish them for all the evil they do.[c]
13 “What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me!
Let them die, for they have rebelled against me.
I wanted to redeem them,
but they have told lies about me.
14 They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.
Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.
They cut themselves,[d] begging foreign gods for grain and new wine,
and they turn away from me.
15 I trained them and made them strong,
yet now they plot evil against me.
16 They look everywhere except to the Most High.
They are as useless as a crooked bow.
Their leaders will be killed by their enemies
because of their insolence toward me.
Then the people of Egypt
will laugh at them.
Hosea 7
International Standard Version
God Accuses Israel
7 “When I was healing Israel,
Ephraim’s sin was uncovered,
along with Samaria’s wickedness.
While they craft lying schemes,
the thief invades,
and the gang of thieves plunders outside.
2 It never occurs to them that I remember all their sin.
Now their actions have caught up with them,
and they have my attention.[a]
3 They please the king with their evil,
and the princes with their dishonesty.
4 All of them are adulterers—
they burn like an oven prepared by the baker,
who has ceased stoking it
until the dough is leavened.
5 “On the king’s festival day
the princes got drunk from wine,
so the king[b] joined the mockers.
6 For they have stirred up themselves[c] like an oven
as they lie in ambush.
Their baker sleeps through the night;
in the morning, the oven[d] will be blazing like a fire.
7 They all burn like an oven;
they have consumed their judges;
all their kings have fallen—
not even one of them calls on me.
8 “Ephraim compromises with[e] the nations;
he’s a half-baked cake.[f]
9 Foreigners have consumed his strength,
and he hasn’t noticed.
Furthermore, his head is sprinkled with gray hair,
but he doesn’t realize it.
10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against him;[g]
but they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek him in all of this.
11 “Ephraim is also like a silly dove,
lacking sense:[h]
They call out to Egypt,
and turn toward Assyria.
12 When they go,
I’ll cast my net over them.
I’ll bring them down, as one shoots[i] birds in the sky.
I’ll chasten them,
as the assembly has already heard.
13 Woe to them—
because they have run away from me.
Ruin to them—
because they have sinned against me.
Even though I redeemed them,
they spread lies against me.
14 They will not cry to me from their heart—
instead, they wail on their beds.
They gather together to eat and drink,[j]
turning away from me.
15 “Though I have taught them
and strengthened their arms,
nevertheless they plot evil against me.
16 They return—but not to the Most High.
They are like a defective weapon.[k]
Their princes will fall by the sword
because of their raging tongue,
and they will be a laughingstock in the land of Egypt.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 7:2 Lit. they are before my face
- Hosea 7:5 Lit. so he
- Hosea 7:6 Lit. up their heart
- Hosea 7:6 Lit. morning, it
- Hosea 7:8 Or dilutes himself among
- Hosea 7:8 Lit. a cake not turned
- Hosea 7:10 Lit. testifies in his face
- Hosea 7:11 Lit. heart
- Hosea 7:12 The Heb. lacks one shoots
- Hosea 7:14 Lit. together for grain and fresh wine
- Hosea 7:16 Lit. bow
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.
