Chapter 7 — The Old Testament Book of Hosea

¹ when I would have healed Israel,
The guilt of Ephraim was revealed,
the wickedness of Samaria:
They practiced falsehood.
Thieves break in,
bandits roam outside.

² Yet they do not call to mind
that I remember all their wickedness.()
Now their crimes surround them,
present to my sight.()

Israel’s Domestic Politics()

³ With their wickedness they make the king rejoice,
the princes too, with their treacherous deeds.

⁴ They are all adulterers,()
like a blazing oven,
Which the baker quits stoking,
after the dough’s kneading until its rising.

⁵ On the day of our king,
they made the princes sick with poisoned wine;
he extended his hand to the scoffers.

⁶ For they draw near in ambush
with their hearts like an oven.
All the night their anger sleeps;
in the morning it flares like a blazing fire.

⁷ They are all heated like ovens,
and consume their rulers.
All their kings have fallen;
none of them calls upon me.

Israel’s Foreign Politics

⁸ Ephraim is mixed with the nations,()
Ephraim is an unturned cake.

⁹ Strangers have consumed his strength,
but he does not know it;()
Gray hairs are strewn on his head,
but he takes no notice of it.

¹⁰ The arrogance of Israel bears witness against him;
yet they do not return to the LORD, their God,
nor seek him, despite all this.()

¹¹ Ephraim is like a dove,
silly and senseless;
They call upon Egypt,
they go to Assyria.

¹² When they go I will spread my net around them,
like birds in the air I will bring them down.()
I will chastise them when I hear of their assembly.

¹³ Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!
Ruin to them, for they have rebelled against me!
Though I wished to redeem them,
they spoke lies against me.

¹⁴ They have not cried to me from their hearts
when they wailed upon their beds;
For wheat and wine they lacerated themselves;()
they rebelled against me.

¹⁵ Though I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devised evil against me.

¹⁶ They have again become useless,
they have been like a treacherous bow.()
Their princes shall fall by the sword
because of the insolence of their tongues;
thus they shall be mocked in the land of Egypt.