Hosea 12:7

The Message

The businessmen engage in wholesale fraud. They love to rip people off! Ephraim boasted, “Look, I’m rich! I’ve made it big! And look how well I’ve covered my tracks: not a hint of fraud, not a sign of sin!”

Cross References

Genesis 49:18

I wait in hope for your salvation, God.

Proverbs 11:1

God hates cheating in the marketplace; he loves it when business is aboveboard.

Proverbs 16:11

God cares about honesty in the workplace; your business is his business.

Isaiah 56:1

God’s Message: “Guard my common good: Do what’s right and do it in the right way, For salvation is just around the corner, my setting-things-right is about to go into action. How fortunate are you who enter into these things, you men and women who embrace them, Who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it, who watch your step and don’t do anything evil! Make sure no outsider who now follows God ever has occasion to say, ‘God put me in second-class. I don’t really belong.’ And make sure no physically mutilated person is ever made to think, ‘I’m damaged goods. I don’t really belong.’”

Joel 2:12

But there’s also this, it’s not too late— God’s personal Message!— “Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!”

Amos 3:9

Announce to the forts of Assyria, announce to the forts of Egypt— Tell them, “Gather on the Samaritan mountains, take a good, hard look: what a snake pit of brutality and terror! They can’t—or won’t—do one thing right.” God said so. “They stockpile violence and blight. Therefore”—this is God’s Word—“an enemy will surround the country. He’ll strip you of your power and plunder your forts.”

Amos 4:1

“Listen to this, you cows of Bashan grazing on the slopes of Samaria. You women! Mean to the poor, cruel to the down-and-out! Indolent and pampered, you demand of your husbands, ‘Bring us a tall, cool drink!’

Micah 2:1

Doom to those who plot evil, who go to bed dreaming up crimes! As soon as it’s morning, they’re off, full of energy, doing what they’ve planned. They covet fields and grab them, find homes and take them. They bully the neighbor and his family, see people only for what they can get out of them. God has had enough. He says, “I have some plans of my own: Disaster because of this interbreeding evil! Your necks are on the line. You’re not walking away from this. It’s doomsday for you. Mocking ballads will be sung of you, and you yourselves will sing the blues: ‘Our lives are ruined, our homes and lands auctioned off. They take everything, leave us nothing! All is sold to the highest bidder.’” And there’ll be no one to stand up for you, no one to speak for you before God and his jury. * * *

Zechariah 5:8

He said, “This is Miss Wickedness.” He pushed her back down into the basket and clamped the lead lid over her.

Malachi 3:5

“Yes, I’m on my way to visit you with Judgment. I’ll present compelling evidence against sorcerers, adulterers, liars, those who exploit workers, those who take advantage of widows and orphans, those who are inhospitable to the homeless—anyone and everyone who doesn’t honor me.” A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies. * * *

James 5:4

All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it. * * *