Hosea 10

¹Israel is a luxuriant vine

that yields its fruit.

The more his fruit increased

the more altars he built;

as his country improved

he improved his pillars.

²Their heart is false;

now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord will break down their altars,

and destroy their pillars.

³For now they will say:

“We have no king,

for we fear not the Lord,

and a king, what could he do for us?”

⁴They utter mere words;

with empty oaths they make covenants;

so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds

in the furrows of the field.

⁵The inhabitants of Samarʹia tremble

for the calf of Beth-aʹven.

Its people shall mourn for it,

and its idolatrous priests shall wail over it,

over its glory which has departed from it.

⁶Yea, the thing itself shall be carried to Assyria,

as tribute to the great king.

Eʹphraim shall be put to shame,

and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.

⁷Samarʹia’s king shall perish,

like a chip on the face of the waters.

⁸The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,

shall be destroyed.

Thorn and thistle shall grow up

on their altars;

and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us,

and to the hills, Fall upon us.

⁹From the days of Gibʹe-ah, you have sinned, O Israel;

there they have continued.

Shall not war overtake them in Gibʹe-ah?

¹⁰I will come against the wayward people to chastise them;

and nations shall be gathered against them

when they are chastised for their double iniquity.

¹¹Eʹphraim was a trained heifer

that loved to thresh,

and I spared her fair neck;

but I will put Eʹphraim to the yoke,

Judah must plow,

Jacob must harrow for himself.

¹²Sow for yourselves righteousness,

reap the fruit of steadfast love;

break up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the Lord,

that he may come and rain salvation upon you.

¹³You have plowed iniquity,

you have reaped injustice,

you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your chariots

and in the multitude of your warriors,

¹⁴therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,

and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,

as Shalman destroyed Beth-arʹbel on the day of battle;

mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

¹⁵Thus it shall be done to you, O house of Israel,

because of your great wickedness.

In the storm the king of Israel

shall be utterly cut off.