HoseaChapter 8

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹Put the ram's horn to your lips!
An eagle hovers over the house of the LORD.
For the people have broken my covenant
and rebelled against my law. ²Israel cries out to me,
"Our God, we know you!" ³But Israel has thrown away what is good.
An enemy will chase him. ⁴They set up kings, but not by me.
They chose leaders, but without my approval.
They made idols for themselves with their silver and gold.
This will destroy them. ⁵He has rejected your calf, Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be unable to be pure? ⁶This thing came from Israel!
A craftsman made it.
It is not God.
That calf of Samaria
will be broken to pieces. ⁷They plant the wind,
and they will harvest the whirlwind.
No grain is standing in the field.
What sprouts will make no flour.
Even if it did make some,
foreigners would eat it all up. ⁸Israel is swallowed up!
Now they are among the nations
like a worthless jar. ⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey wandering alone.
Ephraim has paid lovers. ¹⁰They hire friends among the nations,
but now I will round them up.
They will begin to grow weak
under the harsh rule of the king of princes. ¹¹Ephraim built many altars for sin,
but they became altars for sinning. ¹²I wrote for them the great things of my law,
but they treated them as something strange. ¹³They offer sacrifices as gifts to me,
and they eat the meat,
but the LORD does not accept them.
Now he will remember their sin
and punish their wrongs.
They will go back to Egypt. ¹⁴Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces.
Judah has built many walled cities.
But I will send fire on their cities,
and it will burn up their strong towers.