Hosea 12

¹ Ephraim is enjoying wind, And is pursuing an east wind, All the day lying and spoiling he multiplieth, And a covenant with Asshur they make, And oil to Egypt is carried.

² And a controversy hath Jehovah with Judah, To lay a charge on Jacob according to his ways, According to his doings He returneth to him.

³ In the womb he took his brother by the heel, And by his strength he was a prince with God,

⁴ Yea, he is a prince unto the Messenger, And he overcometh [by] weeping, And he maketh supplication to Him, At Bethel He doth find him, And there He doth speak with us,

⁵ Even Jehovah, God of the Hosts, Jehovah [is] His memorial.

⁶ And thou, through thy God, dost turn, Kindness and judgment keep thou, And wait on thy God continually.

⁷ Canaan! in his hand [are] balances of deceit! To oppress he hath loved.

⁸ And Ephraim saith: ‘Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself, All my labours — they find not against me iniquity that [is] sin.’

⁹ And I — Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt, Again do I turn thee back into tents, As in the days of the appointed time.

¹⁰ And I have spoken unto the prophets, And I have multiplied vision, And by the hand of the prophets I use similes.

¹¹ Surely Gilead [is] iniquity, Only, vanity they have been, In Gilead bullocks they have sacrificed, Also their altars [are] as heaps, on the furrows of a field.

¹² And Jacob doth flee to the country of Aram, And Israel doth serve for a wife, Yea, for a wife he hath kept watch.

¹³ And by a prophet hath Jehovah brought up Israel out of Egypt, And by a prophet it hath been watched.

¹⁴ Ephraim hath provoked most bitterly, And his blood on himself he leaveth, And his reproach turn back to him doth his Lord!