Hosea 12:1-13:14

1In Hebrew texts 12:1-14 is numbered 12:2-15. Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.

2The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives. according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

3In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God.

4He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there—

5the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name!

6But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.

7The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud.

8Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.”

9“I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of your appointed festivals.

10I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them.”

11Is Gilead wicked? Its people are worthless! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Their altars will be like piles of stones on a plowed field.

12Jacob fled to the country of Aram That is, Northwest Mesopotamia ; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep.

13The LORD used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him. 14But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger; his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.

The LORD’s Anger Against Israel 1When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.

2Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifices! They kiss Or “Men who sacrifice / kiss calf-idols!”

3Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.

4“But I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.

5I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat.

6When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.

7So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

8Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open; like a lion I will devour them— a wild animal will tear them apart.

9“You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.

10Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’?

11So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.

12The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.

13Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.

14“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? “I will have no compassion,