ESV - Hosea Chapter 8 to 11

8 Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

8:1 Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. ²To me they cry, My God, we—Israel—know you. ³Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. ⁵I have[1] spurned your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? ⁶For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.^[2]

⁷For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it. ⁸Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel. ⁹For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey wandering alone; Ephraim has hired lovers. ¹⁰Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up. And the king and princes shall soon writhe because of the tribute.

¹¹Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they have become to him altars for sinning. ¹²Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing. ¹³As for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt. ¹⁴For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; so I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour her strongholds.

[1] Hebrew He has [2] Or shall go up in flames

9The Lord Will Punish Israel

9:1 Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute’s wages on all threshing floors. ²Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. ³They shall not remain in the land of the Lord, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please him. It shall be like mourners’ bread to them; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

⁵What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the Lord? ⁶For behold, they are going away from destruction; but Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. ⁸The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God; yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God. ⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.

¹⁰Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. ¹¹Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! ¹²Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left. Woe to them when I depart from them! ¹³Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm[3] planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.^[4]¹⁴Give them, O Lord—what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels.

¹⁶Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. ¹⁷My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.

[3] Or like Tyre [4] Hebrew to him who slaughters

10 10:1 Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. ²Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord[5] will break down their altars and destroy their pillars.

³For now they will say: “We have no king, for we do not fear the Lord; and a king—what could he do for us?” ⁴They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. ⁵The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf[6] of Beth-aven. Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—those who rejoiced over it and over its glory— for it has departed[7] from them. ⁶The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king.^[8]Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.^[9]

⁷Samaria’s king shall perish like a twig on the face of the waters. ⁸The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us.

⁹From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not the war against the unjust[10] overtake them in Gibeah? ¹⁰When I please, I will discipline them, and nations shall be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double iniquity.

¹¹Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself. ¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

¹³You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors, ¹⁴therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. ¹⁵Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great evil. At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.

[5] Hebrew He [6] Or calves [7] Or has gone into exile [8] Or to King Jareb [9] Or counsel [10] Hebrew the children of injustice

11 The Lord’s Love for Israel

11:1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. ²The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.

³Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. ⁴I led them with cords of kindness,^[11]with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

⁵They shall not[12] return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. ⁶The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. ⁷My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.

⁸How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. ⁹I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.^[13]

¹⁰They shall go after the Lord; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west; ¹¹they shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord. ¹² [14] Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.

[11] Or humaneness; Hebrew man [12] Or surely [13] Or into the city [14] Ch 12:1 in Hebrew