Chapter 7
1 Whenever I decide to restore the fortunes of my people
and prepare to heal Israel,
the guilt of Ephraim confronts me
as well as the wicked deeds of Samaria.
They practice deceit;
thieves break into houses
while bandits plunder in the streets.[a]
2 But they somehow fail to remind themselves
that I remember all their wickedness.
I will not forget their wicked deeds;
they are constantly before my eyes.
The Conspirators
3 They delight the king with their wickedness
and the princes with their treachery.
4 All of them are adulterers;
they are like an oven all ablaze
whose fire the baker does not need to stoke
from the kneading of the dough until it has risen.
5 On the festal day of their king,
the princes become inflamed with wine
while the king extends his hand
to those who mock him.[b]
6 For they are heated like ovens
while their heart burns within them.
All through the night their passion slumbers;
in the morning it blazes forth like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are as hot as ovens,
and they consume their rulers.
All their kings have fallen;
not one of them calls out to me.
They Call upon Egypt, They Turn to Assyria
8 Ephraim mixes with the nations;
Ephraim is a half-baked cake.[c]
9 Foreigners have sapped his strength,
but he is unaware of it.
His hair is beginning to turn gray,
but he does not realize it.
10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,
but despite all this,
they do not return to the Lord, their God,
nor do they seek him.
11 Ephraim has become like a dove,
silly and without any sense.
They call upon Egypt;
they turn to Assyria.
12 Wherever they turn,
I will cast my net over them.
I will bring them down
like birds of the sky.
I will discipline them
because of their evil deeds.
13 Woe to them,
for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them,
for they have rebelled against me!
I longed to redeem them,
but they continued to tell lies about me.
14 They have not cried out to me from their hearts
while they wailed upon their beds.
When they gash themselves to obtain grain and new wine,[d]
they are still rebelling against me.
15 Even though I supported and strengthened them,
they devise evil plots against me.
16 Everything they devise is of no avail;
they are like a defective bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of their insolent words.
As a result, they will be ridiculed
in the land of Egypt.
Footnotes
- Hosea 7:1 In healing the sick, physicians would have the sick person strip.
- Hosea 7:5 Probably an allusion to the assassination of Elah (see 1 Ki 16:8-14).
- Hosea 7:8 Ephraim is a half-baked cake: Ephraim (Israel) has suffered a decrease in power as a result of interfering in the politics of the surrounding peoples.
- Hosea 7:14 When they gash themselves to obtain grain and new wine: a practice that was prevalent in the Near East during prayers of supplication (see 1 Ki 18:28) but that was prohibited by the Israelite religion (see Lev 19:28; Deut 14:1).