Hosea 7 - Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

¹ when I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim  and the crimes of Samaria will be exposed. For they practise fraud; a thief breaks in; a raiding party pillages outside.

² But they never consider that I remember all their evil. Now their actions are all around them; they are right in front of my face.

Israel’s Corruption

³ They please the king with their evil, the princes with their lies.

⁴ All of them commit adultery; they are like an oven heated by a baker who stops stirring the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

⁵ On the day of our king, the princes are sick with the heat of wine   – there is a conspiracy with traitors.

⁶ For they #– #their hearts like an oven – draw him into their oven. Their anger smoulders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷ All of them are as hot as an oven, and they consume their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls on me.

⁸ Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations. Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle.

⁹ Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with grey, but he does not notice.

¹⁰ Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,  , yet they do not return to the Lord their God, and for all this, they do not seek him.

¹¹ So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove; they call to Egypt,  and they go to Assyria.

¹² As they are going, I will spread my net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the sky. I will discipline them in accordance with the news that reaches  their assembly.

The Lord ’s Second Lament

¹³ Woe to them,  for they fled from me; destruction to them, for they rebelled against me! Though I want to redeem them, they speak lies against me.

¹⁴ They do not cry to me from their hearts; rather, they wail on their beds. They slash themselves  , for grain and new wine; they turn away from me.

¹⁵ I trained and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against me.

¹⁶ They turn, but not to what is above; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent tongue. They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt.