Hosea 12:1-14

Ephraim chases  the wind  and pursues the east wind.  He continually multiplies lies and violence. He makes a covenant with Assyria,  and olive oil is carried to Egypt.  The Lord also has a dispute with Judah. He is about to punish Jacob according to his conduct;  he will repay him based on his actions. In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel,  and as an adult he wrestled with God.  Jacob struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor.  He found him at Bethel,  and there he spoke with him.  , The Lord is the God of Armies; the Lord is his name.  But you must return to your God.  Maintain love and justice,  and always put your hope in God.  A merchant loves to extort  with dishonest scales in his hands.  But Ephraim thinks, “How rich I have become;  I made it all myself. In all my earnings, no one can find any iniquity in me  that I can be punished for! ”  I have been the Lord your God ever since  the land of Egypt.  I will make you live in tents again,  as in the festival days. I will speak through the prophets  and grant many visions; I will give parables through the prophets.  Since Gilead is full of evil,  they will certainly come to nothing. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;  even their altars will be like piles of rocks  on the furrows of a field. Jacob fled to the territory of Aram.  Israel worked to earn a wife;  he tended flocks for a wife.  The Lord brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet,  and Israel was tended by a prophet. Ephraim has provoked bitter anger,  so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him  and repay him for his contempt.