Hosea 8

¹ ‘Unto thy mouth — a trumpet, As an eagle against the house of Jehovah, Because they transgressed My covenant, And against My law they have rebelled.

² To Me they cry, ‘My God, we — Israel — have known Thee.’

³ Cast off good hath Israel, an enemy pursueth him.

⁴ They have made kings, and not by Me, They have made princes, and I have not known, Their silver and their gold they have made to them idols, So that they are cut off.

⁵ Cast off hath thy calf, O Samaria, Burned hath Mine anger against them, Till when are they not capable of purity?

⁶ For even it [is] of Israel; an artificer made it, And it [is] not God, For the calf of Samaria is fragments!

⁷ For wind they sow, and a hurricane they reap, Stalk it hath none — a shoot not yielding grain, If so be it yield — strangers do swallow it up.

⁸ Israel hath been swallowed up, Now they have been among nations, As a vessel in which is no delight.

⁹ For they — they have gone up [to] Asshur, A wild ass alone by himself [is] Ephraim, They have hired lovers!

¹⁰ Also though they hire among nations, Now I gather them, and they are pained a little, From the burden of a king of princes.

¹¹ Because Ephraim did multiply altars to sin, They have been to him altars to sin.

¹² I write for him numerous things of My law, As a strange thing they have been reckoned.

¹³ The sacrifices of Mine offerings! They sacrifice flesh, and they eat, Jehovah hath not accepted them, Now doth He remember their iniquity, And inspect their sin, They — [to] Egypt they turn back.

¹⁴ And forget doth Israel his Maker, and buildeth temples, And Judah hath multiplied cities of defence, And I have sent a fire into his cities, And it hath consumed their palaces!