Hosea 7

¹when I would heal Israel,

the corruption of Ephraim is revealed,

and the wicked deeds of Samaria;

for they deal falsely,

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid outside.

²But they do not consider

that I remember all their wickedness.

Now their deeds surround them,

they are before my face.

³By their wickedness they make the king glad,

and the officials by their treachery.

⁴They are all adulterers;

they are like a heated oven,

whose baker does not need to stir the fire,

from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

⁵On the day of our king the officials

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.

⁶For they are kindled like an oven, their heart burns within them;

all night their anger smolders;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot as an oven,

and they devour their rulers.

All their kings have fallen;

none of them calls upon me.

⁸Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹Foreigners devour his strength,

but he does not know it;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

but he does not know it.

¹⁰Israel’s pride testifies against him;

yet they do not return to the Lord their God,

or seek him, for all this.

Futile Reliance on the Nations

¹¹Ephraim has become like a dove,

silly and without sense;

they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria.

¹²As they go, I will cast my net over them;

I will bring them down like birds of the air;

I will discipline them according to the report made to their assembly.

¹³Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!

I would redeem them,

but they speak lies against me.

¹⁴They do not cry to me from the heart,

but they wail upon their beds;

they gash themselves for grain and wine;

they rebel against me.

¹⁵It was I who trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they plot evil against me.

¹⁶They turn to that which does not profit;

they have become like a defective bow;

their officials shall fall by the sword

because of the rage of their tongue.

So much for their babbling in the land of Egypt.