Hosea 4:1-10:15 NIV

Hosea 4:1-10:15

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.

Read More of Hosea 4