Hosea 7
Chapter 7 of 14
1 When I would have restored the fortunes of my people, 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.