Hosea 8

Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

¹“Put the trumpet to your lips!

An eagle is over the house of the Lord

because the people have broken my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

²Israel cries out to me,

‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’

³But Israel has rejected what is good;

an enemy will pursue him.

⁴They 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.

⁵Samaria, throw out your calf-idol!

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of purity?

⁶They 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.

⁸Israel is swallowed up;

now she is among the nations

like something no one wants.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria

like a wild donkey wandering alone.

Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

¹⁰Although 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.

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

but they regarded them as something foreign.

¹³Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,

and though they eat the meat,

the Lord is not pleased with them.

Now he will remember their wickedness

and punish their sins:

They will return to Egypt.

¹⁴Israel 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.”