Hosea 4:1-14:9 NIV

Hosea 4:1-14:9

The Charge Against Israel

Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites,

because the Lord has a charge to bring

against you who live in the land:

“There is no faithfulness, no love,

no acknowledgment of God in the land.

There is only cursing,4:2 That is, to pronounce a curse on lying and murder,

stealing and adultery;

they break all bounds,

and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Because of this the land dries up,

and all who live in it waste away;

the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea are swept away.

“But let no one bring a charge,

let no one accuse another,

for your people are like those

who bring charges against a priest.

You stumble day and night,

and the prophets stumble with you.

So I will destroy your mother—

my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

“Because you have rejected knowledge,

I also reject you as my priests;

because you have ignored the law of your God,

I also will ignore your children.

The more priests there were,

the more they sinned against me;

they exchanged their glorious God4:7 Syriac (see also an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition); Masoretic Text me; / I will exchange their glory for something disgraceful.

They feed on the sins of my people

and relish their wickedness.

And it will be: Like people, like priests.

I will punish both of them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

“They will eat but not have enough;

they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,

because they have deserted the Lord

to give themselves to prostitution;

old wine and new wine

take away their understanding.

My people consult a wooden idol,

and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.

A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;

they are unfaithful to their God.

They sacrifice on the mountaintops

and burn offerings on the hills,

under oak, poplar and terebinth,

where the shade is pleasant.

Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution

and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

“I will not punish your daughters

when they turn to prostitution,

nor your daughters-in-law

when they commit adultery,

because the men themselves consort with harlots

and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—

a people without understanding will come to ruin!

“Though you, Israel, commit adultery,

do not let Judah become guilty.

“Do not go to Gilgal;

do not go up to Beth Aven.4:15 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).

And do not swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’

The Israelites are stubborn,

like a stubborn heifer.

How then can the Lord pasture them

like lambs in a meadow?

Ephraim is joined to idols;

leave him alone!

Even when their drinks are gone,

they continue their prostitution;

their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

A whirlwind will sweep them away,

and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

Judgment Against Israel

“Hear this, you priests!

Pay attention, you Israelites!

Listen, royal house!

This judgment is against you:

You have been a snare at Mizpah,

a net spread out on Tabor.

The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter.

I will discipline all of them.

I know all about Ephraim;

Israel is not hidden from me.

Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution;

Israel is corrupt.

“Their deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

A spirit of prostitution is in their heart;

they do not acknowledge the Lord.

Israel’s arrogance testifies against them;

the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin;

Judah also stumbles with them.

When they go with their flocks and herds

to seek the Lord,

they will not find him;

he has withdrawn himself from them.

They are unfaithful to the Lord;

they give birth to illegitimate children.

When they celebrate their New Moon feasts,

he will devour5:7 Or Now their New Moon feasts / will devour them and their fields.

“Sound the trumpet in Gibeah,

the horn in Ramah.

Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven5:8 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).;

lead on, Benjamin.

Ephraim will be laid waste

on the day of reckoning.

Among the tribes of Israel

I proclaim what is certain.

Judah’s leaders are like those

who move boundary stones.

I will pour out my wrath on them

like a flood of water.

Ephraim is oppressed,

trampled in judgment,

intent on pursuing idols.5:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.

I am like a moth to Ephraim,

like rot to the people of Judah.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah his sores,

then Ephraim turned to Assyria,

and sent to the great king for help.

But he is not able to cure you,

not able to heal your sores.

For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

like a great lion to Judah.

I will tear them to pieces and go away;

I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.

Then I will return to my lair

until they have borne their guilt

and seek my face—

in their misery

they will earnestly seek me.”

Israel Unrepentant

“Come, let us return to the Lord.

He has torn us to pieces

but he will heal us;

he has injured us

but he will bind up our wounds.

After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will restore us,

that we may live in his presence.

Let us acknowledge the Lord;

let us press on to acknowledge him.

As surely as the sun rises,

he will appear;

he will come to us like the winter rains,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”

“What can I do with you, Ephraim?

What can I do with you, Judah?

Your love is like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears.

Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,

I killed you with the words of my mouth—

then my judgments go forth like the sun.6:5 The meaning of the Hebrew for this line is uncertain.

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

As at Adam,6:7 Or Like Adam; or Like human beings they have broken the covenant;

they were unfaithful to me there.

Gilead is a city of evildoers,

stained with footprints of blood.

As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,

so do bands of priests;

they murder on the road to Shechem,

carrying out their wicked schemes.

I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:

There Ephraim is given to prostitution,

Israel is defiled.

“Also for you, Judah,

a harvest is appointed.

“Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

whenever I would heal Israel,

the sins of Ephraim are exposed

and the crimes of Samaria revealed.

They practice deceit,

thieves break into houses,

bandits rob in the streets;

but they do not realize

that I remember all their evil deeds.

Their sins engulf them;

they are always before me.

“They delight the king with their wickedness,

the princes with their lies.

They are all adulterers,

burning like an oven

whose fire the baker need not stir

from the kneading of the dough till it rises.

On the day of the festival of our king

the princes become inflamed with wine,

and he joins hands with the mockers.

Their hearts are like an oven;

they approach him with intrigue.

Their passion smolders all night;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

All of them are hot as an oven;

they devour their rulers.

All their kings fall,

and none of them calls on me.

“Ephraim mixes with the nations;

Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over.

Foreigners sap his strength,

but he does not realize it.

His hair is sprinkled with gray,

but he does not notice.

Israel’s arrogance testifies against him,

but despite all this

he does not return to the Lord his God

or search for him.

“Ephraim is like a dove,

easily deceived and senseless—

now calling to Egypt,

now turning to Assyria.

When they go, I will throw my net over them;

I will pull them down like the birds in the sky.

When I hear them flocking together,

I will catch them.

Woe to them,

because they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them,

because they have rebelled against me!

I long to redeem them

but they speak about me falsely.

They do not cry out to me from their hearts

but wail on their beds.

They slash themselves,7:14 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts They gather together appealing to their gods

for grain and new wine,

but they turn away from me.

I trained them and strengthened their arms,

but they plot evil against me.

They do not turn to the Most High;

they are like a faulty bow.

Their leaders will fall by the sword

because of their insolent words.

For this they will be ridiculed

in the land of Egypt.

Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

“Put the trumpet to your lips!

An eagle is over the house of the Lord

because the people have broken my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

Israel cries out to me,

‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’

But Israel has rejected what is good;

an enemy will pursue him.

They set up kings without my consent;

they choose princes without my approval.

With their silver and gold

they make idols for themselves

to their own destruction.

Samaria, throw out your calf-idol!

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of purity?

They are from Israel!

This calf—a metalworker has made it;

it is not God.

It will be broken in pieces,

that calf of Samaria.

“They sow the wind

and reap the whirlwind.

The stalk has no head;

it will produce no flour.

Were it to yield grain,

foreigners would swallow it up.

Israel is swallowed up;

now she is among the nations

like something no one wants.

For they have gone up to Assyria

like a wild donkey wandering alone.

Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

Although they have sold themselves among the nations,

I will now gather them together.

They will begin to waste away

under the oppression of the mighty king.

“Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,

these have become altars for sinning.

I wrote for them the many things of my law,

but they regarded them as something foreign.

Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,

and though they eat the meat,

the Lord is not pleased with them.

Now he will remember their wickedness

and punish their sins:

They will return to Egypt.

Israel has forgotten their Maker

and built palaces;

Judah has fortified many towns.

But I will send fire on their cities

that will consume their fortresses.”

Punishment for Israel

Do not rejoice, Israel;

do not be jubilant like the other nations.

For you have been unfaithful to your God;

you love the wages of a prostitute

at every threshing floor.

Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;

the new wine will fail them.

They will not remain in the Lord’s land;

Ephraim will return to Egypt

and eat unclean food in Assyria.

They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord,

nor will their sacrifices please him.

Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;

all who eat them will be unclean.

This food will be for themselves;

it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals,

on the feast days of the Lord?

Even if they escape from destruction,

Egypt will gather them,

and Memphis will bury them.

Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,

and thorns will overrun their tents.

The days of punishment are coming,

the days of reckoning are at hand.

Let Israel know this.

Because your sins are so many

and your hostility so great,

the prophet is considered a fool,

the inspired person a maniac.

The prophet, along with my God,

is the watchman over Ephraim,9:8 Or The prophet is the watchman over Ephraim, / the people of my God

yet snares await him on all his paths,

and hostility in the house of his God.

They have sunk deep into corruption,

as in the days of Gibeah.

God will remember their wickedness

and punish them for their sins.

“When I found Israel,

it was like finding grapes in the desert;

when I saw your ancestors,

it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.

But when they came to Baal Peor,

they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol

and became as vile as the thing they loved.

Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

Even if they rear children,

I will bereave them of every one.

Woe to them

when I turn away from them!

I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,

planted in a pleasant place.

But Ephraim will bring out

their children to the slayer.”

Give them, Lord

what will you give them?

Give them wombs that miscarry

and breasts that are dry.

“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,

I hated them there.

Because of their sinful deeds,

I will drive them out of my house.

I will no longer love them;

all their leaders are rebellious.

Ephraim is blighted,

their root is withered,

they yield no fruit.

Even if they bear children,

I will slay their cherished offspring.”

My God will reject them

because they have not obeyed him;

they will be wanderers among the nations.

Israel was a spreading vine;

he brought forth fruit for himself.

As his fruit increased,

he built more altars;

as his land prospered,

he adorned his sacred stones.

Their heart is deceitful,

and now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord will demolish their altars

and destroy their sacred stones.

Then they will say, “We have no king

because we did not revere the Lord.

But even if we had a king,

what could he do for us?”

They make many promises,

take false oaths

and make agreements;

therefore lawsuits spring up

like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

The people who live in Samaria fear

for the calf-idol of Beth Aven.10:5 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).

Its people will mourn over it,

and so will its idolatrous priests,

those who had rejoiced over its splendor,

because it is taken from them into exile.

It will be carried to Assyria

as tribute for the great king.

Ephraim will be disgraced;

Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.

Samaria’s king will be destroyed,

swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.

The high places of wickedness10:8 Hebrew aven, a reference to Beth Aven (a derogatory name for Bethel); see verse 5. will be destroyed—

it is the sin of Israel.

Thorns and thistles will grow up

and cover their altars.

Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”

and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

“Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel,

and there you have remained.10:9 Or there a stand was taken

Will not war again overtake

the evildoers in Gibeah?

When I please, I will punish them;

nations will be gathered against them

to put them in bonds for their double sin.

Ephraim is a trained heifer

that loves to thresh;

so I will put a yoke

on her fair neck.

I will drive Ephraim,

Judah must plow,

and Jacob must break up the ground.

Sow righteousness for yourselves,

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the Lord,

until he comes

and showers his righteousness on you.

But you have planted wickedness,

you have reaped evil,

you have eaten the fruit of deception.

Because you have depended on your own strength

and on your many warriors,

the roar of battle will rise against your people,

so that all your fortresses will be devastated—

as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

So will it happen to you, Bethel,

because your wickedness is great.

When that day dawns,

the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

God’s Love for Israel

“When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.

But the more they were called,

the more they went away from me.11:2 Septuagint; Hebrew them

They sacrificed to the Baals

and they burned incense to images.

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,

taking them by the arms;

but they did not realize

it was I who healed them.

I led them with cords of human kindness,

with ties of love.

To them I was like one who lifts

a little child to the cheek,

and I bent down to feed them.

“Will they not return to Egypt

and will not Assyria rule over them

because they refuse to repent?

A sword will flash in their cities;

it will devour their false prophets

and put an end to their plans.

My people are determined to turn from me.

Even though they call me God Most High,

I will by no means exalt them.

“How can I give you up, Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, Israel?

How can I treat you like Admah?

How can I make you like Zeboyim?

My heart is changed within me;

all my compassion is aroused.

I will not carry out my fierce anger,

nor will I devastate Ephraim again.

For I am God, and not a man—

the Holy One among you.

I will not come against their cities.

They will follow the Lord;

he will roar like a lion.

When he roars,

his children will come trembling from the west.

They will come from Egypt,

trembling like sparrows,

from Assyria, fluttering like doves.

I will settle them in their homes,”

declares the Lord.

Israel’s Sin

Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,

Israel with deceit.

And Judah is unruly against God,

even against the faithful Holy One.11:12 In Hebrew texts this verse (11:12) is numbered 12:1.

In Hebrew texts 12:1-14 is numbered 12:2-15. Ephraim feeds on the wind;

he pursues the east wind all day

and multiplies lies and violence.

He makes a treaty with Assyria

and sends olive oil to Egypt.

The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah;

he will punish Jacob12:2 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives. according to his ways

and repay him according to his deeds.

In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;

as a man he struggled with God.

He struggled with the angel and overcame him;

he wept and begged for his favor.

He found him at Bethel

and talked with him there—

the Lord God Almighty,

the Lord is his name!

But you must return to your God;

maintain love and justice,

and wait for your God always.

The merchant uses dishonest scales

and loves to defraud.

Ephraim boasts,

“I am very rich; I have become wealthy.

With all my wealth they will not find in me

any iniquity or sin.”

“I have been the Lord your God

ever since you came out of Egypt;

I will make you live in tents again,

as in the days of your appointed festivals.

I spoke to the prophets,

gave them many visions

and told parables through them.”

Is Gilead wicked?

Its people are worthless!

Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?

Their altars will be like piles of stones

on a plowed field.

Jacob fled to the country of Aram12:12 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia;

Israel served to get a wife,

and to pay for her he tended sheep.

The Lord used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,

by a prophet he cared for him.

But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger;

his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed

and will repay him for his contempt.

The Lord’s Anger Against Israel

When Ephraim spoke, people trembled;

he was exalted in Israel.

But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.

Now they sin more and more;

they make idols for themselves from their silver,

cleverly fashioned images,

all of them the work of craftsmen.

It is said of these people,

“They offer human sacrifices!

They kiss13:2 Or “Men who sacrifice / kiss calf-idols!”

Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears,

like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,

like smoke escaping through a window.

“But I have been the Lord your God

ever since you came out of Egypt.

You shall acknowledge no God but me,

no Savior except me.

I cared for you in the wilderness,

in the land of burning heat.

When I fed them, they were satisfied;

when they were satisfied, they became proud;

then they forgot me.

So I will be like a lion to them,

like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

Like a bear robbed of her cubs,

I will attack them and rip them open;

like a lion I will devour them—

a wild animal will tear them apart.

“You are destroyed, Israel,

because you are against me, against your helper.

Where is your king, that he may save you?

Where are your rulers in all your towns,

of whom you said,

‘Give me a king and princes’?

So in my anger I gave you a king,

and in my wrath I took him away.

The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,

his sins are kept on record.

Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him,

but he is a child without wisdom;

when the time arrives,

he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.

“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;

I will redeem them from death.

Where, O death, are your plagues?

Where, O grave, is your destruction?

“I will have no compassion,

even though he thrives among his brothers.

An east wind from the Lord will come,

blowing in from the desert;

his spring will fail

and his well dry up.

His storehouse will be plundered

of all its treasures.

The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,

because they have rebelled against their God.

They will fall by the sword;

their little ones will be dashed to the ground,

their pregnant women ripped open.”13:16 In Hebrew texts this verse (13:16) is numbered 14:1.

Repentance to Bring Blessing

In Hebrew texts 14:1-9 is numbered 14:2-10. Return, Israel, to the Lord your God.

Your sins have been your downfall!

Take words with you

and return to the Lord.

Say to him:

“Forgive all our sins

and receive us graciously,

that we may offer the fruit of our lips.14:2 Or offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls

Assyria cannot save us;

we will not mount warhorses.

We will never again say ‘Our gods’

to what our own hands have made,

for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

“I will heal their waywardness

and love them freely,

for my anger has turned away from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like a lily.

Like a cedar of Lebanon

he will send down his roots;

his young shoots will grow.

His splendor will be like an olive tree,

his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

People will dwell again in his shade;

they will flourish like the grain,

they will blossom like the vine—

Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim, what more have I14:8 Or Hebrew; Septuagint What more has Ephraim to do with idols?

I will answer him and care for him.

I am like a flourishing juniper;

your fruitfulness comes from me.”

Who is wise? Let them realize these things.

Who is discerning? Let them understand.

The ways of the Lord are right;

the righteous walk in them,

but the rebellious stumble in them.

Read More of Hosea 4