HoseaChapter 7
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1When I heal Israel,
Ephraim's sin will be uncovered,
and so will the crimes of Samaria.
For they lie and cheat.
Thieves break in.
Bandits rob people in the streets. 2But they do not stop to think
that I remember all their evil.
Now their deeds are all around them.
They are right in front of me. 3They make the king glad with their evil.
They make the leaders glad with their lies. 4They are all adulterers.
They are like an oven heated by a baker.
He does not need to stir the fire
from the time he kneads the dough
until it rises. 5On the day of our king,
the leaders are sick and hot with wine.
So the king joins hands with those who mock him. 6They make their hearts ready like an oven
while they lie in wait.
All night their anger burns low.
In the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. 7All of them are hot as an oven.
They eat up their rulers.
All their kings fall.
Not one of them calls on me. 8Ephraim mixes with the nations.
Ephraim is like a flat cake not turned over. 9Foreigners eat up his strength,
but he does not notice.
Even his hair is streaked with gray,
but he does not know it. 10Israel's pride speaks against them.
Yet they do not return to the LORD their God.
In spite of all this, they do not seek him. 11So Ephraim has become like a dove,
silly and without sense.
They call out to Egypt,
then turn to Assyria. 12As they go, I will throw my net over them.
I will bring them down like birds of the air.
When I hear them flocking together,
I will punish them. 13How terrible for them, for they have wandered from me!
Ruin will come to them, for they have rebelled against me!
I would redeem them,
but they speak lies against me. 14They do not cry out to me from their hearts
when they wail on their beds.
They cut themselves for grain and new wine,
but they turn away from me. 15I trained them and made their arms strong,
yet they plan evil against me. 16They turn, but not to the Most High.
They are like a bow that does not shoot straight.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of the cursing of their tongues.
For this, people will laugh at them in the land of Egypt.