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Israel Rejects the Good

Put to your lips the trumpet
like a vulture over the house of Yahweh,
because they have broken my covenant[a]
    and rebelled against my law.
They cry out to me,
    “My God! We, Israel, know you!”
Israel has spurned the good;
    the enemy will pursue him.
They appointed kings, but not through me;
    they made officials, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold
    they made idols for themselves
        for their[b] own destruction.[c]
Your calf is rejected,[d] O Samaria;
    my anger burns against them.
How long[e] will they be incapable of innocence?
    Because it is from Israel,
an artisan made it,
    it is not a god;
for the calf of Samaria
    will be broken to pieces.
Because they sow the wind,
    they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain does not have heads;[f]
    it will not yield flour.
And if it would yield,
    strangers would devour it.
Israel is swallowed up;
    now they are among the nations,
        like an object that no one desires.
For they have gone up to Assyria,
    a wild donkey alone to itself;
        Ephraim has sold itself for lovers.
10 Even though they have sold themselves to the nations,
    now I will gather them.
They will soon writhe
    from the burden of kings[g] and princes.
11 When Ephraim multiplied altars
    to expiate sins,
        they became to him altars to sin on.
12 I write for him myriads of my instruction;[h]
    they are regarded as a strange thing.
13 They offer sacrifices of my choice[i]
    and they eat flesh;
        Yahweh does not accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity
    and punish their sins;
they will return to Egypt.
14     Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
    but I will send fire on his cities
    and it will devour her strongholds.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 8:1 Literally “transgressed my covenant”
  2. Hosea 8:4 Hebrew “his”
  3. Hosea 8:4 Literally “cut off”
  4. Hosea 8:5 Hebrew “he rejects” or “has rejected you”
  5. Hosea 8:5 Hebrew “Until when”
  6. Hosea 8:7 Hebrew “head”
  7. Hosea 8:10 Hebrew “king”
  8. Hosea 8:12 Or “my law”
  9. Hosea 8:13 Hebrew uncertain; or “loved ones”