Hosea 7

Ephraim’s Iniquity

¹In My healing of Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria; for they practice deceit, and a thief comes in; bandits raid in the street.

²And they do not tell their hearts that all their evil I remember. Now their deeds have surrounded them; they are before My face.

³With their evil they make glad the king, and with their lies—princes.

⁴They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker, who ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough until it is leavened.

⁵On the day of our king, the princes became sick, raging from the wine; he stretched out his hand with the mockers.

⁶For they approach; like an oven is their heart in ambush; all night their baker is sleeping; in the morning it burns like a fire of flame.

⁷All of them are hot like an oven, and they devour their judges; all their kings have fallen; no one among them calls to Me.

⁸Ephraim, he has mixed himself with the nations; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹Strangers have devoured his power, and he does not know; even gray hairs are scattered on him, and he does not know.

¹⁰And the pride of Israel testifies to his face; they do not return to YHWH their God, they do not seek Him in all this.

¹¹And Ephraim is like a silly dove, without sense; to Egypt they call; to Assyria they go.

¹²When they go, I will spread over them My net, like birds of the heavens I will bring them down; I will chastise them according to the report of their congregation.

¹³Woe to them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction be to them, because they have transgressed against Me! And though I would redeem them, they have spoken lies against Me.

¹⁴And they did not cry out to Me with their heart, when they wailed upon their beds; they slash themselves for grain and new wine; they rebel against Me.

¹⁵And I disciplined—I strengthened their arms; against Me they devise evil.

¹⁶They return, not to the Most High; they are like a bow of slackness; their princes will fall by the sword, from the insolence of their tongue; this is their derision in the land of Egypt.