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“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,
    making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!
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.

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Israel Lacks Discernment and Refuses to Repent

Ephraim has mixed itself like flour[a] among the nations;
Ephraim is like a ruined cake of bread that is scorched on one side.[b]
Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced,[c]
but he does not recognize it.
His head is filled with gray hair,
but he does not realize it.
10 The arrogance of Israel testifies against him,
yet they refuse to return to the Lord their God.
In spite of all this they refuse to seek him.

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 7:8 tn The words “like flour” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied by the imagery.
  2. Hosea 7:8 tn Heb “a cake of bread not turned.” This metaphor compares Ephraim to a ruined cake of bread that was not turned over in time to avoid being scorched and burned (see BDB 728 s.v. עֻגָה). Cf. NLT “as worthless as a half-baked cake.”
  3. Hosea 7:9 tn Heb “foreigners consume his strength”; cf. NRSV “devour (NIV “sap”) his strength.”