Hosea 8

Israel’s False Hopes

1 Put the ram’s horn to your mouth!  * 8:1 Hs 5:8

One like an eagle comes

against the house of the  Lord,  * 8:1 Dt 28:49

because they transgress my covenant  * 8:1 Hs 6:7

and rebel against my law.  * 8:1 Hs 4:6; 8:12

2 Israel cries out to me,  * 8:2 Hs 7:14

"My God, we know you! "

3 Israel has rejected what is good;  * 8:3 Hs 3:5

an enemy will pursue him.

4 They have installed kings,  * 8:4 Hs 13:10–11

but not through me.

They have appointed leaders,

but without my approval.

They make their silver and gold  * 8:4 Hs 2:8; 13:1–2

into idols for themselves

for their own destruction.  * 8:4 Lit themselves that it might be cut off

5 Your calf-idol  * 8:5 Lit calf,* 8:5 Hs 10:5; 13:2 is rejected, Samaria.  * 8:5 1Kg 12:28–29; Hs 7:1

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of innocence?  * 8:5 Ps 19:13; Jr 13:27

6 For this thing is from Israel —

a craftsman made it,  * 8:6 Hs 13:2 and it is not God.

The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!

7 Indeed, they sow the wind  * 8:7 Hs 10:13

and reap the whirlwind.  * 8:7 Is 66:15; Nah 1:3

There is no standing grain;

what sprouts fails to yield flour.  * 8:7 Hs 2:9

Even if they did,

foreigners would swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up!  * 8:8 Jr 51:34

Now they are among the nations

like discarded pottery.  * 8:8 Jr 25:34; Hs 13:15

9 For they have gone up to Assyria  * 8:9 Hs 7:11

like a wild donkey going off on its own.

Ephraim has paid for love.  * 8:9 Ezk 16:33

10 Even though they hire lovers among the nations,

I will now round them up,

and they will begin to decrease in number  * 8:10 Jr 42:2

under the burden of the king and leaders.  * 8:10 Is 10:8

11 When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,  * 8:11 Hs 10:1; 12:11

they became his altars for sinning.

12 Though I were to write out for him

ten thousand points of my instruction,  * 8:12 Hs 4:6

they would be  * 8:12 Or Though I wrote out . . . instruction, they are regarded as something strange.

13 Though they offer sacrificial gifts  * 8:13 Hb obscure,* 8:13 Hs 5:6; 9:4

and eat the flesh,  * 8:13 Jr 6:20; 7:21

the Lord does not accept them.

Now he will remember their guilt  * 8:13 Hs 7:2; Lk 12:2; 1Co 4:5

and punish their sins;  * 8:13 Hs 4:9; 9:7

they will return to Egypt.  * 8:13 Hs 9:3,6

14 Israel has forgotten his Maker  * 8:14 Hs 2:13; 4:6; 13:6 and built palaces;  * 8:14 Is 9:9–10

Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.

I will send fire on their cities,  * 8:14 Jr 17:27

and it will consume their citadels.