UST HOS Chapter 12

12 The people of Ephraim do what is useless;

yes, they keep busy all day doing worthless things.

They constantly tell lies and do violent things.

First they make a treaty with Assyria,

and then they send olive oil to Egypt to get help from that nation.

2 Yahweh is bringing a legal case against Judah as well,

and he will punish the descendants of Jacob for how they have lived.

He will give them what they deserve for the things they have done.

3 When their ancestor Jacob was still in his mother’s womb, he grabbed the heel of his brother Esau because he wanted to be the firstborn.

When Jacob grew up and became strong, he wrestled with God.

4 He struggled with an angel who appeared to him, and he won.

Then Jacob wept and begged the angel to bless him.

God met Jacob at Bethel,

and there God spoke with him.

5 That one is Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies;

“Yahweh” is the name that he commanded us always to use for him.

6 So you, people of Israel, restore yourselves as God’s people by obeying your God!

Be faithful to him and act justly toward others,

and always trust in your God.

7 But the merchants among you use dishonest scales;

they love to cheat people.

8 The people of Ephraim boast and say,

“We have become very rich!

We have gained great possessions for ourselves.

No one can find anything wrong in all the work we have done, that is, nothing that would count as sin for us.”

9 “I am Yahweh your God, the one who brought your ancestors out of Egypt.

I will make you live in tents again,

just as your people did when they celebrated the Festival of Shelters.

10 I told the prophets what to say to the people,

and I am the one who showed them many times what I am going to do.

I used the prophets to teach my people through stories and examples.”

11 The people of Gilead are certainly wicked;

they are now completely worthless.

The people sacrifice bulls at Gilgal,

but enemies will tear down their altars and leave them looking like piles of stones in a plowed field.

12 Your ancestor Jacob ran away to the land of Aram to escape from his brother Esau.

There he, Israel, worked as a shepherd to pay for a wife,

and he kept on tending sheep to pay for a wife.

13 Later Yahweh used the prophet Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt,

and through that prophet, Yahweh took care of them.

14 But the people of Ephraim have made their Lord extremely angry.

Their Lord will hold them responsible for all of the people whom they have killed,

and he will give them what they deserve for all of the ways that they have offended him.