Hosea 11:12-Hosea 12:14 - Israel's History

¹² Ephraim surrounds me with lies,
the house of Israel, with deceit.
Judah still wanders with God
and is faithful to the holy ones.

¹ Ephraim chases the wind
and pursues the east wind.
He continually multiplies lies and violence.
He makes a covenant with Assyria,
and olive oil is carried to Egypt.

² The Lord also has a dispute with Judah.
He is about to punish Jacob according to his ways;
He will repay him based on his actions.
³ In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel,
and as an adult he wrestled with God.
⁴ Jacob struggled with the Angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought His favor.
He found him at Bethel,
and there He spoke with him.
⁵ Yahweh is the God of Hosts;
Yahweh is His name.
⁶ But you must return to your God.
Maintain love and justice,
and always put your hope in God.

⁷ A merchant loves to extort
with dishonest scales in his hands.
⁸ But Ephraim says:
“How rich I have become;
I made it all myself.
In all my earnings,
no one can find any crime in me
that I can be punished for!”

⁹ I have been Yahweh your God
ever since the land of Egypt.
I will make you live in tents again,
as in the festival days.
¹⁰ I spoke through the prophets
and granted many visions;
I gave parables through the prophets.
¹¹ Since Gilead is full of evil,
they will certainly come to nothing.
They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;
even their altars will be like heaps of rocks
on the furrows of a field.

¹² Jacob fled to the land of Aram.
Israel worked to earn a wife;
he tended flocks for a wife.
¹³ The Lord brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet,
and Israel was tended by a prophet.

¹⁴ Ephraim has provoked bitter anger,
so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him
and repay him for his contempt.

>