Idols Thrown Down
8 “Put a shofar to your mouth!
Like a vulture he comes
against the house of Adonai.
For they overstepped My covenant
and transgressed My Torah.
2 Will they cry out to Me,
‘My God, we—Israel—knew You’?[a]
3 Israel has rejected goodness—
an adversary will pursue him.
4 They crowned kings, but not by Me.
They appointed princes
I did not approve.
Their silver and gold they made into idols—
just so they would be cut down.
5 Samaria! Your calf is thrown down!
My anger is kindled against them!
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For a craftsman from Israel made it,
so it is no god.
For the calf of Samaria will be splinters.
7 “For they sow wind, and reap a whirlwind.
There is no mature grain—
the sprout yields no meal.
Should it produce anything,
strangers would swallow it up.
8 Israel has been swallowed up!
Now they are among the nations,
like an ornament with no delight in it.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
like a wild donkey alone by itself.
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Although they hire among the nations,
I will now round them up.
So they will begin to decrease
under the burden of king and princes.
11 “When Ephraim multiplied altars
for making sin offerings,
they became his altars for sinning.
12 Though I were to write out for him
ten thousand things from My Torah,
they are regarded as something strange.
13 Sacrifices are gifts for Me—
should they sacrifice meat and then eat it?
Adonai will not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity
and punish their sin—
they will return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built temples,
while Judah has multiplied fortified cities.
So I will send fire upon its cities
that will consume their citadels.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 8:2 Cf. Ps. 78:34; Hos. 7:14; Matt. 7:23; Titus 1:16.