Hosea 8:11-11:11

8.11 Although Ephraim has built many altars for sin offerings,
these have become altars for sinning.
12 I spelled out My Law for him in great detail,
but they regard it as something totally foreign to them.
13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to Me
and eat the meat,
but YHWH does not accept them.
Soon He will remember their wrongdoing,
He will punish their sins,
and they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built royal palaces,
and Judah has built many fortified cities.
But I will send fire on their cities;
it will consume their royal citadels.

9 O Israel, do not rejoice unto jubilation like the nations,
for you have committed adultery to your God.
You love the prostitute’s wages
on all the floors where you thresh your grain.
2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed them,
and new wine only deceives her.

3 They will not remain in YHWH’s land.
Ephraim will return to Egypt;
they will eat ritually unclean food in Assyria.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to YHWH;
they will not please Him with their sacrifices.
Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning;
all those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean.
For their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite;
it will not come into the temple of YHWH.
5 So what will you do on the festival day,
on the festival days of YHWH?

6 Look! Although they flee from the destruction,
Egypt will grab them,
and Memphis will bury them.
The weeds will inherit their treasured silvers—
thorn bushes will occupy their tents.
7 The days of the visitation have come!
The days of the retribution have come!
Israel will [tremble/be humbled]!

The prophet is considered a fool—
the man of the Spirit is viewed as a madman—
because of the multitude of your sins
and your great animosity.
8 The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim with my God,
yet the bird trap of a bird catcher is laid for him along all his paths;
animosity rages against him in the home of his God.

9 They they are deeply corrupted
as in the days of Gibeah. (cf. Judges 19-21)
He will remember their wrongdoing.
He will repay them for their sins.
10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness.
I viewed your fathers like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season.
Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame—
they became as detestable as what they loved.

11 Ephraim will be like a bird;
their glory will fly away.
No childbearing,
no pregnancy,
no conception.
12 Even if they raise their children,
I will bereave them to a man;
Woe to them!
For I will turn away from them.
13 [Ephraim, as I have seen, has given their children for prey/
Ephraim, as I have seen, is like Tyre, planted in a meadow.]
Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.
14 Give them, O YHWH—
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry,
And breasts that shrivel up dry!
15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal, (cf. 1Sa 11:12–15)
I hate them there.
On account of their evil deeds,
I will drive them out of my home.
I will no longer love them;
all their rulers are rebels.
16 Ephraim will be [struck down/blighted]—
their root will be dried up;
they will not yield any fruit.
Even if they do bear children,
I will kill their precious offspring.
17 My God will reject them,
for they have not obeyed him;
so they will be fugitives among the nations.

10 Israel was a fertile vine
that yielded fruit.
As his fruit multiplied,
he multiplied altars.
As his land prospered,
they adorned the fertility pillars.
2 Their hearts are slipping;
soon they will be punished for their guilt.
He will break their altars;
He will completely destroy their fertility pillars.

3 Very soon they will say, “We have no king
since we did not fear YHWH.
But what can a king do for us anyway?”
4 They speak words
to swear an oath and to make a covenant.
Therefore legal disputes sprout up
like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a plowed field.

5 The inhabitant of Samaria will lament over the calf of Beth Aven.
Its people will mourn over it;
its idolatrous priests will wail over it,
because its splendor will be taken from it into exile.
6 Even it will be carried to Assyria,
as tribute for ‘the great king.’ (= sarru rabbu)
Ephraim will be disgraced;
Israel will be put to shame because of its wooden idol.
7 Samaria and its king will be carried off
like a twig on the surface of the waters.
8 The high places of Aven will be destroyed;
it is the place where Israel sins.
Thorns and thistles will grow up over its altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

9 O Israel, you have sinned since the days of Gibeah,
and there you have remained.
Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?
10 In My will, I will discipline them;
nations will be gathered together against them.
to bind them in chains[bl] for their two sins.[bm]

11 Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain;
I, myself, put a fine yoke on her neck.
I will harness Ephraim.
Let Judah plow!
Let Jacob break up the unplowed ground for himself!
12 Sow righteousness for yourselves,
reap unfailing love.
Break up the unplowed ground for yourselves,
for it is time to seek YHWH,
until He comes and showers deliverance on you.
13 But you have plowed wickedness;
you have reaped injustice;
you have eaten the fruit of deception.
Because you have depended on your chariots,
on your many warriors.

14 The roar of battle will rise against your people;
all your fortresses will be devastated,
like Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,
when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.
15 So will it happen to you, O Beth El,
because of your great wickedness!
When the dawn is ended,
the king of Israel will be ended.

11 “When Israel was a young man, I loved him,
and I summoned My son out of Egypt.
2 But the more I summoned them,
the farther they departed from Me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
and burned incense to images.
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
I took them by the arm,
but they did not acknowledge
that I had healed them.
4 I drew them with [humane/leather] cords,
with straps of [love/hide];
And I was to them like [those who lift a yoke from their neck/one who lifts a little child to the cheek]
and gently fed him.
5 They will return to Egypt!
Assyria, he will be his king
because they refuse to change.
6 A sword will flash in their cities,
it will destroy the bars of their city gates,
and will devour them in their fortresses.
7 My people are hung up on turning from me;
they call to Baal, but he will never exalt them!

8 “How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, O Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?  (cf. Gen 10.19, 14.2, 8; Deut 29.23)
How can I make you like Zeboyim?
My heart is turned over within me.
All my tender compassions are aroused.
9 I cannot carry out my fierce anger!
I cannot totally destroy Ephraim!
Because I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you—
I will not come in wrath!

10 “He will roar like a lion,
and they will follow YHWH;
when He roars,
His children will come trembling from the west.
11 They will return in fear and trembling
like birds from Egypt,
like doves from Assyria,
and I will settle them in their homes,” declares YHWH.