Hosea Chapter 7
1 “When I would heal Israel,
Ephraim’s sin gets uncovered,
Samaria’s evil deeds as well,
because they’re devious.
Thieves go inside;
bandits raid outside.
2 They don’t realize
that I remember their sinfulness.
Their deeds are all around them;
they’re right in front of me.
Hos 7:1-2
3 “They entertain the king with their sinfulness,
and the officials laugh at their lies.
4 They’re adulterers,
like an oven heated by bakers
that keep the fire going
from the kneading of the dough till it’s risen.
5 On our king’s holidays, the officials get sick with the heat of wine,
he joins in with the ones who mock him.
6 Their hearts are like an oven
that burns with intrigue.
Their anger smolders all night
and breaks out in the morning like a blazing fire.
7 They’re all hot like an oven
and consume their leaders.
They kill their kings;
yet none of them cries out to me for help.
Hos 7:3-7
8 “Ephraim mixes in with foreigners;
he’s like a half-baked cake that doesn’t get turned over.
9 Worshipping foreign gods is sapping his strength,
but he doesn’t even realize it.
Gray hairs are peppering his head,
but he doesn’t notice it.
10 Though Israel’s pride testifies against him,
he doesn’t come back to Yahveh his God
or rely on him.
11 “So Ephraim has become a silly pigeon
that coos to Egypt and flies to Assyria.
12 As he goes, I’ll cast my net over him,
bring him down like a bird from the sky,
and punish him in proportion to his sinfulness.
Hos 7:8-12
13 “Misfortune awaits him
for straying from me!
Destruction is in store for him
for rebelling against me!
I would have redeemed him,
but he slandered me.
14 He doesn’t call out to me sincerely,
but wails on his bed.
He gashes himself for grain and new wine,
turning away from me to foreign gods.
Although I trained him and made him strong,
he still plots against me.
16 He turns, but not upward;
he’s like a crooked bow;
his officers will die by the sword
because of their insolence toward me.
Egypt will laugh at them.
Hos 7:13-16