Hosea 8:1-14

  • Reaping the consequences of idolatry (1-14)

    • Sowing wind, reaping a storm (7)

    • Israel has forgotten his Maker (14)

8  “Put a horn to your mouth!+ One comes like an eagle against the house of Jehovah,+For they have violated my covenant+ and transgressed against my law.+  2  To me they cry out, ‘My God, we, Israel, know you!’+  3  Israel has rejected what is good.+ Let an enemy pursue him.  4  They have appointed kings, but not through me. They have appointed princes, but I did not recognize them. With their silver and their gold they have made idols,+To their own destruction.+  5  Your calf has been rejected, O Sa·marʹi·a.+ My anger flares up against them.+ How long will they be incapable of innocence?*  6  For this is from Israel. A craftsman made it, and it is not God;The calf of Sa·marʹi·a will be reduced to splinters.  7  For it is wind that they are sowing,And they will reap a storm wind.+ No stalk produces ripe* grain;+Whatever sprouts produces no flour. If any is produced, foreigners* will swallow it down.+  8  Israel will be swallowed down.+ Now they will be among the nations,+Like an unwanted vessel.  9  For they have gone up to As·syrʹi·a,+ like a lone wild donkey. Eʹphra·im has hired lovers.+ 10  Although they hire them from among the nations,I will now round them up;They will begin to suffer+ because of the burden imposed by king and princes. 11  For Eʹphra·im has multiplied altars to sin.+ They became his altars for sinning.+ 12  I wrote for him the many things of my law,*But they were regarded as something strange.+ 13  They offer sacrificial gifts to me, and they eat the meat,But Jehovah takes no pleasure in them.+ Now he will remember their error and punish them for their sins.+ They have turned back* to Egypt.+ 14  Israel has forgotten his Maker+ and has built temples,+And Judah has multiplied fortified cities.+ But I will send fire into his cities,And it will consume the towers of each one.”+

Footnotes

Or “purity?”
Or “standing.”
Or “strangers.”
Or “instruction.”
Or possibly, “They will return.”