Hosea Chapter 10

¹ Israel is a luxurious vine

      that grows his own fruit.

The more his fruit,

            the more altars he makes;

      the better his land,

            the better the sacred pillars he sets up.

² He’s been unfaithful;

      now he must pay for his guilt.

The LORD is going to tear down his altars

      and pull over his sacred pillars.                                       

Hos 10:1-2

³ Then they’ll say, “We don’t have a king

            because we didn’t respect the LORD;

      even if we had one,

            what could he do for us?”

⁴ They just talk;

      they make treaties they don’t intend to keep,

      so condemnations sprout up like noxious weeds

            in the ditches in their fields.

⁵ The residents in Samaria will fear

      for the calf idol at Beth-aven [Bethel].

Its people will mourn for it;

      its idolatrous priests will cry

            over its departed beauty.

⁶ The idol itself they will carry off to Assyria

            as tribute to their great king;

      Ephraim will be disgraced for depending on it.

⁷ Samaria and its king will float away

      like driftwood on the ocean tide.                         

⁸ The high places of Beth-aven, the place of Israel’s sin,

      will fall into ruin;

thorns and thistles will grow up around their altars.

      Then they’ll call to the mountains, “Cover us!”

            and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

Hos 10:3-8

⁹ The LORD says, “Ever since Gibeah,

      they’ve just kept on sinning!

Wasn’t it right for war to break out against them?

¹⁰ When I so desire,

      I’ll attack those sinners;

I’ll gather the nations’ armies against them

      to punish them for their extreme guilt.                            

Hos 10:9-10

¹¹ “Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to tread out grain,

            and I used to spare her fair neck.

      But I’ll put a yoke on Ephraim;

            I’ll make Judah plow

            and Jacob harrow by himself.

¹² Sow seeds of goodness;

      harvest a crop of lasting love.

Break up your heart’s hardened, fallow ground;

      it’s time to look to the LORD

      so he’ll come to shower goodness on you.

                  ¹³“You’ve cultivated sinfulness and harvested injustice;

      you’ve eaten the produce of lies

            because you’ve trusted in going it on your own

                  with your big army.

¹⁴ So the loud noise of war will arise among your people

      and destroy your fortresses

            the way Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel in battle,

            and mothers were dashed to pieces with their children.

¹⁵ That’s what’s going to happen to you, too, Bethel,

            because of your extreme sinfulness.

      Israel’s king will be killed at dawn.                                

Hos 10:11-15