Hosea 7

1 "When I would have healed Israel,

Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,

And the wickedness of Samaria.

For *Ezek. 23:4–8; Hos. 5:1they have committed fraud;

A thief comes in;

A band of robbers takes spoil outside.

2 They do not consider in their hearts

That*Ps. 25:7; Jer. 14:10; 17:1; Hos. 8:13; 9:9; Amos 8:7I remember all their wickedness;

Now their own deeds have surrounded them;

They are before My face.

3 They make a *Hos. 1:1king glad with their wickedness,

And princes *Mic. 7:3; (Rom. 1:32)with their lies.

4 "They*Jer. 9:2; 23:10are all adulterers.

Like an oven heated by a baker—

He ceases stirring thefire after kneading the dough,

Until it is leavened.

5 In the day of our king

Princes have made him sick, inflamed with *Is. 28:1, 7wine;

He stretched out his hand with scoffers.

6 They prepare their heart like an oven,

While they lie in wait;

Their baker sleeps all night;

In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

7 They are all hot, like an oven,

And have devoured their judges;

All their kings have fallen.

*Is. 64:7None among them calls upon Me.

8 "Ephraim *Ps. 106:35has mixed himself among the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake unturned.

9 *Is. 1:7; 42:25; Hos. 8:7Aliens have devoured his strength,

But he does not know it;

Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,

Yet he does not know it.

10 And the *Hos. 5:5pride of Israel testifies to his face,

But *Is. 9:13they do not return to the Lord their God,

Nor seek Him for all this.

Futile Reliance on the Nations

11 "Ephraim*Hos. 11:11 also is like a silly dove, without sense—

*Is. 30:3They call to Egypt,

They go to *Hos. 5:13; 8:9Assyria.

12 Wherever they go, I will *Ezek. 12:13spread My net on them;

I will bring them down like birds of the air;

I will chastise them

*Lev. 26:14; Deut. 28:15; 2 Kin. 17:13According to what their congregation has heard.

13 "Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!

Destruction to them,

Because they have transgressed against Me!

Though *Ex. 18:8; Mic. 6:4I redeemed them,

Yet they have spoken lies against Me.

14 *Job 35:9, 10; Ps. 78:36; Jer. 3:10; Zech. 7:5They did not cry out to Me with their heart

When they wailed upon their beds.

"They assemble together for grain and new *Judg. 9:27; Amos 2:8wine,

They rebel against Me;

15 Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms,

Yet they devise evil against Me;

16 They return, but not to the Most High;

*Ps. 78:57They are like a treacherous bow.

Their princes shall fall by the sword

For the *Ps. 73:9; Dan. 7:25; Mal. 3:13, 14cursings of their tongue.

This shallbe their derision *Deut. 28:68; Ezek. 23:32; Hos. 8:13; 9:3in the land of Egypt.