Hosea 6–8

1Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

2After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence.

3So let us know— let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth.

4What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.

5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning.

6For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.

8Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with footprints of blood.

9Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.

10In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim practices prostitution there, and Israel is defiled.

11Also for you, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore My people from captivity.

1When I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim will be exposed, as well as the crimes of Samaria. For they practice deceit and thieves break in; bandits raid in the streets.

2But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.

3They delight the king with their evil, and the princes with their lies.

4They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough.

5The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him.

6For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

7All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls upon Me.

8Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is an unturned cake.

9Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.

10Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God; despite all this, they do not seek Him.

11So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove— calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.

12As they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the air. I will chastise them when I hear them flocking together.

13Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, they speak lies against Me.

14They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me.

15Although I trained and strengthened their arms, they plot evil against Me.

16They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

1Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.

2Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!”

3But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.

4They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.

5He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?

6For this thing is from Israel— a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.

7For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.

8Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.

9For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.

10Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.

11Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.

12Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.

13Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.

14Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.