LEB HOS Chapter 8

Israel Rejects the Good

• like a vulture over the house of Yahweh,
• because they have broken my covenant[fn]
  • and rebelled against my law.
  • 2 They cry out to me, “My God! We, Israel, know you!”
  • 3 Israel has spurned the good; the enemy will pursue him.
  • 4 They appointed kings, but not through me; they made officials, but without my knowledge.
• With their silver and gold
  • they made idols for themselves
    • for their[fn] own destruction .[fn]
  • 5 Your calf is rejected,[fn] O Samaria; my anger burns against them.
• How long[fn] will they be incapable of innocence?
• 6 Because it is from Israel, an artisan made it,
  • it is not a god;
• for the calf of Samaria
  • will be broken to pieces.
  • 7 Because they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind.
• The standing grain does not have heads;[fn]
  • it will not yield flour.
• And if it would yield,
  • strangers would devour it.
  • 8 Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations,
    • like an object that no one desires.
  • 9 For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey alone to itself;
    • Ephraim has sold itself for lovers.
  • 10 Even though they have sold themselves to the nations, now I will gather them.
• They will soon writhe
  • from the burden of kings[fn] and princes.
  • 11 When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sins,
    • they became to him altars to sin on.
  • 12 I write for him myriads of my instruction;[fn] they are regarded as a strange thing.
  • 13 They offer sacrifices of my choice[fn] and they eat flesh;
    • Yahweh does not accept them.
• Now he will remember their iniquity
  • and punish their sins;
• they will return to Egypt.
• 14 Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
  • but I will send fire on his cities
  • and it will devour her strongholds.