Hosea 6:4-7:16
1599 Geneva Bible
4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, how shall I entreat thee? for [a]your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the morning dew it goeth away.
5 Therefore have I [b]cut down by the Prophets: I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and thy [c]judgments were as the light that goeth forth.
6 For I desired [d]mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they [e]like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they trespassed against me.
8 [f]Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.
9 And as the thieves wait for a man, so the company of Priests murder in the way by consent: for they work mischief.
10 I have seen villainy in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim: Israel is defiled.
11 Yea, Judah hath set a [g]plant for thee, while I would return the captivity of my people.
7 1 Of the vices and wantonness of the people. 12 Of their punishment.
1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they have dealt falsely: and [h]the thief cometh in, and the robber spoileth without.
2 And they consider not in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: now their own inventions have beset them about: they are in my sight.
3 They make the [i]king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers, and as a very [j]oven heated by the baker, which ceaseth from raising up, and from kneading the dough until it be leavened.
5 This is the [k]day of our king: the princes have made him sick with flagons of wine: he stretcheth out his hand to scorners.
6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven while they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night: in the morning it burneth as a flame of fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven, and have [l]devoured their judges: all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.
8 Ephraim hath [m]mixed himself among the people. Ephraim is as a cake on the hearth not turned.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, [n]gray hairs are here, and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face, and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.
11 Ephraim also is like a dove deceived without [o]heart: they call to Egypt: they go to Assyria.
12 But when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them, and draw them down as the fowls of the heaven: I will chastise them as their [p]Congregation hath heard.
13 Woe unto them: for they have fled away from me: destruction shall be unto them, because they have transgressed against me: though I have [q]redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
14 And they have not cried unto me with their hearts, [r]when they howled upon their beds: [s]they assembled themselves for corn, and wine, and they rebel against me.
15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arm, yet do they imagine mischief against me.
16 They return, but not to the most high: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage [t]of their tongues: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Footnotes
- Hosea 6:4 You seem to have a certain holiness and repentance, but it is upon the sudden, and as a morning cloud.
- Hosea 6:5 I have still labored by my prophets, and as it were framed you to bring you to amendment, but all was in vain: for my word was not food to feed them, but a sword to slay them.
- Hosea 6:5 My doctrine which I taught thee, was most evident.
- Hosea 6:6 He showeth to what scope his doctrine tended, that they should join the obedience of God, and the love of their neighbor with outward sacrifices.
- Hosea 6:7 That is, like light and weak persons.
- Hosea 6:8 Which was the place where the Priests dwelt, and which should have been best instructed in my word.
- Hosea 6:11 That is, doth imitate thine idolatry, and hath taken grafts of thy trees.
- Hosea 7:1 Meaning, that there was no one kind of vice among them, but that they were subject to all wickedness, both secret and open.
- Hosea 7:3 They esteem their wicked king Jeroboam above God, and seek but how to flatter and please him.
- Hosea 7:4 He compareth the rage of the people to a burning oven which the baker heateth, still till his dough be leavened and raised.
- Hosea 7:5 They used all riot and excess in their feasts, and solemnities whereby their king was overcome with surfeit, and brought into diseases, and delighted in flatteries.
- Hosea 7:7 By their occasion God hath deprived them of all good rulers.
- Hosea 7:8 That is, he counterfeited the religion of the Gentiles, yet is but as a cake baked on the one side, and raw on the other, that is, neither thoroughly hot, nor thoroughly cold, but partly a Jew, and partly a Gentile.
- Hosea 7:9 Which are a token of his manifold afflictions.
- Hosea 7:11 That is, without all judgment, as they that cannot tell whether it is better to cleave only to God, or to seek the help of man.
- Hosea 7:12 According to my curses made to the whole Congregation of Israel.
- Hosea 7:13 That is, divers times redeemed them, and delivered them from death.
- Hosea 7:14 When they were in affliction, and cried out for pain, they sought not unto me for help.
- Hosea 7:14 They only seek their own commodity and wealth, and pass not for me their God.
- Hosea 7:16 Because they boast of their own strength, and pass not what they speak against me and my servants, Ps. 73:9.
Geneva Bible, 1599 Edition. Published by Tolle Lege Press. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles, reviews, and broadcasts.
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