Hosea 8
8
Israel’s False Hopes
1Put the ram’s horn to your mouth!#Hs 5:8
One like an eagle comes
against the house of the Lord,#Dt 28:49
because they transgress my covenant#Hs 6:7
and rebel against my law.#Hs 4:6; 8:12
2Israel cries out to me,#Hs 7:14
“My God, we know you!”
3Israel has rejected what is good;#Hs 3:5
an enemy will pursue him.
4They have installed kings,#Hs 13:10–11
but not through me.
They have appointed leaders,
but without my approval.
They make their silver and gold#Hs 2:8; 13:1–2
into idols for themselves
for their own destruction.#8:4 Lit themselves that it might be cut off
5Your calf-idol#8:5 Lit calf#Hs 10:5; 13:2 is rejected, Samaria.#1Kg 12:28–29; Hs 7:1
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?#Ps 19:13; Jr 13:27
6For this thing is from Israel —
a craftsman made it,#Hs 13:2 and it is not God.
The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!
7Indeed, they sow the wind#Hs 10:13
and reap the whirlwind.#Is 66:15; Nah 1:3
There is no standing grain;
what sprouts fails to yield flour.#Hs 2:9
Even if they did,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8Israel is swallowed up!#Jr 51:34
Now they are among the nations
like discarded pottery.#Jr 25:34; Hs 13:15
9For they have gone up to Assyria#Hs 7:11
like a wild donkey going off on its own.
Ephraim has paid for love.#Ezk 16:33
10Even though they hire lovers among the nations,
I will now round them up,
and they will begin to decrease in number#Jr 42:2
under the burden of the king and leaders.#Is 10:8
11When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,#Hs 10:1; 12:11
they became his altars for sinning.
12Though I were to write out for him
ten thousand points of my instruction,#Hs 4:6
they would be#8:12 Or Though I wrote out... instruction, they are regarded as something strange.
13Though they offer sacrificial gifts#8:13 Hb obscure#Hs 5:6; 9:4
and eat the flesh,#Jr 6:20; 7:21
the Lord does not accept them.
Now he will remember their guilt#Hs 7:2; Lk 12:2; 1Co 4:5
and punish their sins;#Hs 4:9; 9:7
they will return to Egypt.#Hs 9:3,6
14Israel has forgotten his Maker#Hs 2:13; 4:6; 13:6 and built palaces;#Is 9:9–10
Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.
I will send fire on their cities,#Jr 17:27
and it will consume their citadels.
© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers