Hosea 12
Christian Standard Bible
God’s Case against Jacob’s Heirs
12 Ephraim chases[a] the wind(A)
and pursues the east wind.(B)
He continually multiplies lies and violence.
He makes a covenant with Assyria,(C)
and olive oil is carried to Egypt.(D)
2 The Lord also has a dispute with Judah.
He is about to punish Jacob according to his conduct;(E)
he will repay him based on his actions.
3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel,(F)
and as an adult he wrestled with God.(G)
4 Jacob struggled with the angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought his favor.(H)
He found him at Bethel,(I)
and there he spoke with him.[b](J)
5 The Lord is the God of Armies;
the Lord is his name.(K)
6 But you must return to your God.(L)
Maintain love and justice,(M)
and always put your hope in God.(N)
7 A merchant loves to extort(O)
with dishonest scales in his hands.(P)
8 But Ephraim thinks,
“How rich I have become;(Q)
I made it all myself.
In all my earnings,
no one can find any iniquity in me(R)
that I can be punished for!” [c]
Judgment on Apostate Israel
9 I have been the Lord your God
ever since[d] the land of Egypt.(S)
I will make you live in tents again,(T)
as in the festival days.
10 I will speak through the prophets(U)
and grant many visions;
I will give parables through the prophets.(V)
11 Since Gilead is full of evil,(W)
they will certainly come to nothing.
They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;(X)
even their altars will be like piles of rocks(Y)
on the furrows of a field.
Further Indictment of Jacob’s Heirs
12 Jacob fled to the territory of Aram.(Z)
Israel worked to earn a wife;(AA)
he tended flocks for a wife.(AB)
13 The Lord brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet,(AC)
and Israel was tended by a prophet.
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