The Bible Study – Hosea Ch. 8 & 9

(1) Set the trumpet to your lips!
One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord,
because they have transgressed my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
⁽²⁾ To me they cry,
“My God, we—Israel—know you.”
⁽³⁾ Israel has spurned the good;
the enemy shall pursue him.

⁽⁴⁾ They made kings, but not through me.
They set up princes, but I knew it not.
With their silver and gold they made idols
for their own destruction.
⁽⁵⁾ I have spurned your calf, O Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
⁽⁶⁾ For it is from Israel;
a craftsman made it;
it is not God.
The calf of Samaria
shall be broken to pieces.

⁽⁷⁾ For they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads;
it shall yield no flour;
if it were to yield,
strangers would devour it.
⁽⁸⁾ Israel is swallowed up;
already they are among the nations
as a useless vessel.
⁽⁹⁾ For they have gone up to Assyria,
a wild donkey wandering alone;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
⁽¹⁰⁾ Though they hire allies among the nations,
I will soon gather them up.
And the king and princes shall soon writhe
because of the tribute.

⁽¹¹⁾ Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
⁽¹²⁾ Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,
they would be regarded as a strange thing.
⁽¹³⁾ As for my sacrificial offerings,
they sacrifice meat and eat it,
but the Lord does not accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins;
they shall return to Egypt.
⁽¹⁴⁾ For Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built palaces,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
so I will send a fire upon his cities,
and it shall devour her strongholds.

(1) Rejoice not, O Israel!
Exult not like the peoples;
for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on all threshing floors.
^{(2 )}Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
^{(3 )}They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

^{(4 )}They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

^{(5 )}What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
^{(6 )}For behold, they are going away from destruction;
but Egypt shall gather them;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;
thorns shall be in their tents.

^{(7 )}The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come;
Israel shall know it.
The prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
and great hatred.
^{(8 )}The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
^{(9 )}They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah:
he will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.

⁽¹⁰⁾ Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But they came to Baal-peor
and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
⁽¹¹⁾ Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
⁽¹²⁾ Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
Woe to them
when I depart from them!
⁽¹³⁾ Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow;
but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.
⁽¹⁴⁾ Give them, O Lord—
what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.

⁽¹⁵⁾ Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;
there I began to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all their princes are rebels.

⁽¹⁶⁾ Ephraim is stricken;
their root is dried up;
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will put their beloved children to death.
⁽¹⁷⁾ My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
they shall be wanderers among the nations.