Hosea 8:1-14, Hosea 9:1-17 NIV

Hosea 8:1-14

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.”

Read More of Hosea 8

Hosea 9:1-17

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.

Read More of Hosea 9