New International Version (NIV)

Judgment Against Israel

1 “Hear this, you priests!

Pay attention, you Israelites!

Listen, royal house!

This judgment is against you:

You have been a snare at Mizpah,

a net spread out on Tabor.

2 The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter.

I will discipline all of them.

3 I know all about Ephraim;

Israel is not hidden from me.

Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution;

Israel is corrupt.

4 “Their deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

A spirit of prostitution is in their heart;

they do not acknowledge theLord.

5 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them;

the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin;

Judah also stumbles with them.

6 When they go with their flocks and herds

to seek theLord,

they will not find him;

he has withdrawn himself from them.

7 They are unfaithful to theLord;

they give birth to illegitimate children.

When they celebrate their New Moon feasts,

# he will devourtheir fields.

8 “Sound the trumpet in Gibeah,

the horn in Ramah.

# Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven;

lead on, Benjamin.

9 Ephraim will be laid waste

on the day of reckoning.

Among the tribes of Israel

I proclaim what is certain.

10 Judah’s leaders are like those

who move boundary stones.

I will pour out my wrath on them

like a flood of water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed,

trampled in judgment,

# intent on pursuing idols.

12 I am like a moth to Ephraim,

like rot to the people of Judah.

13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah his sores,

then Ephraim turned to Assyria,

and sent to the great king for help.

But he is not able to cure you,

not able to heal your sores.

14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

like a great lion to Judah.

I will tear them to pieces and go away;

I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.

15 Then I will return to my lair

until they have borne their guilt

and seek my face—

in their misery

they will earnestly seek me.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/5-b6011c416f94d4bd05566dc7c15c106e.mp3?version_id=111—

Israel Unrepentant

1 “Come, let us return to theLord.

He has torn us to pieces

but he will heal us;

he has injured us

but he will bind up our wounds.

2 After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will restore us,

that we may live in his presence.

3 Let us acknowledge theLord;

let us press on to acknowledge him.

As surely as the sun rises,

he will appear;

he will come to us like the winter rains,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”

4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?

What can I do with you, Judah?

Your love is like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears.

5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,

I killed you with the words of my mouth—

# then my judgments go forth like the sun.

6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

7 As at Adam,they have broken the covenant;

they were unfaithful to me there.

8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,

stained with footprints of blood.

9 As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,

so do bands of priests;

they murder on the road to Shechem,

carrying out their wicked schemes.

10 I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:

There Ephraim is given to prostitution,

Israel is defiled.

11 “Also for you, Judah,

a harvest is appointed.

“Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/6-a12544b294ab387ba120ffd4eb929b3f.mp3?version_id=111—

1 whenever I would heal Israel,

the sins of Ephraim are exposed

and the crimes of Samaria revealed.

They practice deceit,

thieves break into houses,

bandits rob in the streets;

2 but they do not realize

that I remember all their evil deeds.

Their sins engulf them;

they are always before me.

3 “They delight the king with their wickedness,

the princes with their lies.

4 They are all adulterers,

burning like an oven

whose fire the baker need not stir

from the kneading of the dough till it rises.

5 On the day of the festival of our king

the princes become inflamed with wine,

and he joins hands with the mockers.

6 Their hearts are like an oven;

they approach him with intrigue.

Their passion smolders all night;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

7 All of them are hot as an oven;

they devour their rulers.

All their kings fall,

and none of them calls on me.

8 “Ephraim mixes with the nations;

Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over.

9 Foreigners sap his strength,

but he does not realize it.

His hair is sprinkled with gray,

but he does not notice.

10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against him,

but despite all this

he does not return to theLordhis God

or search for him.

11 “Ephraim is like a dove,

easily deceived and senseless—

now calling to Egypt,

now turning to Assyria.

12 When they go, I will throw my net over them;

I will pull them down like the birds in the sky.

When I hear them flocking together,

I will catch them.

13 Woe to them,

because they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them,

because they have rebelled against me!

I long to redeem them

but they speak about me falsely.

14 They do not cry out to me from their hearts

but wail on their beds.

# They slash themselves,appealing to their gods

for grain and new wine,

but they turn away from me.

15 I trained them and strengthened their arms,

but they plot evil against me.

16 They do not turn to the Most High;

they are like a faulty bow.

Their leaders will fall by the sword

because of their insolent words.

For this they will be ridiculed

in the land of Egypt.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/7-f943bdcec23cb78534a097acc9e91691.mp3?version_id=111—

Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

1 “Put the trumpet to your lips!

An eagle is over the house of theLord

because the people have broken my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

2 Israel cries out to me,

‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’

3 But Israel has rejected what is good;

an enemy will pursue him.

4 They set up kings without my consent;

they choose princes without my approval.

With their silver and gold

they make idols for themselves

to their own destruction.

5 Samaria, throw out your calf-idol!

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of purity?

6 They are from Israel!

This calf—a metalworker has made it;

it is not God.

It will be broken in pieces,

that calf of Samaria.

7 “They sow the wind

and reap the whirlwind.

The stalk has no head;

it will produce no flour.

Were it to yield grain,

foreigners would swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up;

now she is among the nations

like something no one wants.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria

like a wild donkey wandering alone.

Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

10 Although they have sold themselves among the nations,

I will now gather them together.

They will begin to waste away

under the oppression of the mighty king.

11 “Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,

these have become altars for sinning.

12 I wrote for them the many things of my law,

but they regarded them as something foreign.

13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,

and though they eat the meat,

theLordis not pleased with them.

Now he will remember their wickedness

and punish their sins:

They will return to Egypt.

14 Israel has forgotten their Maker

and built palaces;

Judah has fortified many towns.

But I will send fire on their cities

that will consume their fortresses.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/8-a362d4e8c67f14a41a1c2c3fd42f55fb.mp3?version_id=111—

Punishment for Israel

1 Do not rejoice, Israel;

do not be jubilant like the other nations.

For you have been unfaithful to your God;

you love the wages of a prostitute

at every threshing floor.

2 Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;

the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not remain in theLord’s land;

Ephraim will return to Egypt

and eat unclean food in Assyria.

4 They will not pour out wine offerings to theLord,

nor will their sacrifices please him.

Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;

all who eat them will be unclean.

This food will be for themselves;

it will not come into the temple of theLord.

5 What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals,

on the feast days of theLord?

6 Even if they escape from destruction,

Egypt will gather them,

and Memphis will bury them.

Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,

and thorns will overrun their tents.

7 The days of punishment are coming,

the days of reckoning are at hand.

Let Israel know this.

Because your sins are so many

and your hostility so great,

the prophet is considered a fool,

the inspired person a maniac.

8 The prophet, along with my God,

# is the watchman over Ephraim,

yet snares await him on all his paths,

and hostility in the house of his God.

9 They have sunk deep into corruption,

as in the days of Gibeah.

God will remember their wickedness

and punish them for their sins.

10 “When I found Israel,

it was like finding grapes in the desert;

when I saw your ancestors,

it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.

But when they came to Baal Peor,

they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol

and became as vile as the thing they loved.

11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

12 Even if they rear children,

I will bereave them of every one.

Woe to them

when I turn away from them!

13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,

planted in a pleasant place.

But Ephraim will bring out

their children to the slayer.”

14 Give them,Lord—

what will you give them?

Give them wombs that miscarry

and breasts that are dry.

15 “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,

I hated them there.

Because of their sinful deeds,

I will drive them out of my house.

I will no longer love them;

all their leaders are rebellious.

16 Ephraim is blighted,

their root is withered,

they yield no fruit.

Even if they bear children,

I will slay their cherished offspring.”

17 My God will reject them

because they have not obeyed him;

they will be wanderers among the nations.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/9-f121783e9ae2b4e1dacbe4d7baefe206.mp3?version_id=111—

1 Israel was a spreading vine;

he brought forth fruit for himself.

As his fruit increased,

he built more altars;

as his land prospered,

he adorned his sacred stones.

2 Their heart is deceitful,

and now they must bear their guilt.

TheLordwill demolish their altars

and destroy their sacred stones.

3 Then they will say, “We have no king

because we did not revere theLord.

But even if we had a king,

what could he do for us?”

4 They make many promises,

take false oaths

and make agreements;

therefore lawsuits spring up

like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

5 The people who live in Samaria fear

# for the calf-idol of Beth Aven.

Its people will mourn over it,

and so will its idolatrous priests,

those who had rejoiced over its splendor,

because it is taken from them into exile.

6 It will be carried to Assyria

as tribute for the great king.

Ephraim will be disgraced;

Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.

7 Samaria’s king will be destroyed,

swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.

8 The high places of wickednesswill be destroyed—

it is the sin of Israel.

Thorns and thistles will grow up

and cover their altars.

Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”

and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

9 “Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel,

# and there you have remained.

Will not war again overtake

the evildoers in Gibeah?

10 When I please, I will punish them;

nations will be gathered against them

to put them in bonds for their double sin.

11 Ephraim is a trained heifer

that loves to thresh;

so I will put a yoke

on her fair neck.

I will drive Ephraim,

Judah must plow,

and Jacob must break up the ground.

12 Sow righteousness for yourselves,

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek theLord,

until he comes

and showers his righteousness on you.

13 But you have planted wickedness,

you have reaped evil,

you have eaten the fruit of deception.

Because you have depended on your own strength

and on your many warriors,

14 the roar of battle will rise against your people,

so that all your fortresses will be devastated—

as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

15 So will it happen to you, Bethel,

because your wickedness is great.

When that day dawns,

the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/10-a18a65a4d0b00e07e7b6c9f1217246e3.mp3?version_id=111—

#

1 Ephraim feeds on the wind;

he pursues the east wind all day

and multiplies lies and violence.

He makes a treaty with Assyria

and sends olive oil to Egypt.

2 TheLordhas a charge to bring against Judah;

# he will punish Jacobaccording to his ways

and repay him according to his deeds.

3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;

as a man he struggled with God.

4 He struggled with the angel and overcame him;

he wept and begged for his favor.

He found him at Bethel

and talked with him there—

5 theLordGod Almighty,

theLordis his name!

6 But you must return to your God;

maintain love and justice,

and wait for your God always.

7 The merchant uses dishonest scales

and loves to defraud.

8 Ephraim boasts,

“I am very rich; I have become wealthy.

With all my wealth they will not find in me

any iniquity or sin.”

9 “I have been theLordyour God

ever since you came out of Egypt;

I will make you live in tents again,

as in the days of your appointed festivals.

10 I spoke to the prophets,

gave them many visions

and told parables through them.”

11 Is Gilead wicked?

Its people are worthless!

Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?

Their altars will be like piles of stones

on a plowed field.

12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram;

Israel served to get a wife,

and to pay for her he tended sheep.

13 TheLordused a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,

by a prophet he cared for him.

14 But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger;

his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed

and will repay him for his contempt.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/12-e7bdf50f471be0ef75610001ef41a1d6.mp3?version_id=111—

The Lord’s Anger Against Israel

1 When Ephraim spoke, people trembled;

he was exalted in Israel.

But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.

2 Now they sin more and more;

they make idols for themselves from their silver,

cleverly fashioned images,

all of them the work of craftsmen.

It is said of these people,

“They offer human sacrifices!

# They kisscalf-idols!”

3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears,

like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,

like smoke escaping through a window.

4 “But I have been theLordyour God

ever since you came out of Egypt.

You shall acknowledge no God but me,

no Savior except me.

5 I cared for you in the wilderness,

in the land of burning heat.

6 When I fed them, they were satisfied;

when they were satisfied, they became proud;

then they forgot me.

7 So I will be like a lion to them,

like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs,

I will attack them and rip them open;

like a lion I will devour them—

a wild animal will tear them apart.

9 “You are destroyed, Israel,

because you are against me, against your helper.

10 Where is your king, that he may save you?

Where are your rulers in all your towns,

of whom you said,

‘Give me a king and princes’?

11 So in my anger I gave you a king,

and in my wrath I took him away.

12 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,

his sins are kept on record.

13 Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him,

but he is a child without wisdom;

when the time arrives,

he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.

14 “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;

I will redeem them from death.

Where, O death, are your plagues?

Where, O grave, is your destruction?

“I will have no compassion,

15 even though he thrives among his brothers.

An east wind from theLordwill come,

blowing in from the desert;

his spring will fail

and his well dry up.

His storehouse will be plundered

of all its treasures.

16 The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,

because they have rebelled against their God.

They will fall by the sword;

their little ones will be dashed to the ground,

# their pregnant women ripped open.”

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/13-896965a8cb1942c9a405b301adef3f32.mp3?version_id=111—

Repentance to Bring Blessing

#

1 Return, Israel, to theLordyour God.

Your sins have been your downfall!

2 Take words with you

and return to theLord.

Say to him:

“Forgive all our sins

and receive us graciously,

# that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

3 Assyria cannot save us;

we will not mount warhorses.

We will never again say ‘Our gods’

to what our own hands have made,

for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

4 “I will heal their waywardness

and love them freely,

for my anger has turned away from them.

5 I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like a lily.

Like a cedar of Lebanon

he will send down his roots;

6 his young shoots will grow.

His splendor will be like an olive tree,

his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

7 People will dwell again in his shade;

they will flourish like the grain,

they will blossom like the vine—

Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 Ephraim, what more have Ito do with idols?

I will answer him and care for him.

I am like a flourishing juniper;

your fruitfulness comes from me.”

9 Who is wise? Let them realize these things.

Who is discerning? Let them understand.

The ways of theLordare right;

the righteous walk in them,

but the rebellious stumble in them.

—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/3/32k/HOS/14-7844b0bdcb61ce75e85dabb1651f5a57.mp3?version_id=111—