Chapter 7
Hosea
Verse 1when I would heal Israel,the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,and the evil deeds of Samaria,for they deal falsely;the thief breaks in,and the bandits raid outside.Verse 2But they do not considerthat I remember all their evil.Now their deeds surround them;they are before my face.Verse 3By their evil they make the king glad,and the princes by their treachery.Verse 4They are all adulterers;they are like a heated ovenwhose baker ceases to stir the fire,from the kneading of the doughuntil it is leavened.Verse 5On the day of our king, the princesbecame sick with the heat of wine;he stretched out his hand with mockers.Verse 6For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;all night their anger smolders;in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.Verse 7All of them are hot as an oven,and they devour their rulers.All their kings have fallen,and none of them calls upon me.Verse 8Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;Ephraim is a cake not turned.Verse 9Strangers devour his strength,and he knows it not;gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,and he knows it not.Verse 10The pride of Israel testifies to his face;yet they do not return to the LORD their God,nor seek him, for all this.Verse 11Ephraim is like a dove,silly and without sense,calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.Verse 12As they go, I will spread over them my net;I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.Verse 13Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!I would redeem them,but they speak lies against me.Verse 14They do not cry to me from the heart,but they wail upon their beds;for grain and wine they gash themselves;they rebel against me.Verse 15Although I trained and strengthened their arms,yet they devise evil against me.Verse 16They return, but not upward;they are like a treacherous bow;their princes shall fall by the swordbecause of the insolence of their tongue.This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.