Hosea 4-13

Complete Jewish Bible

“I will destroy your mother.
⁶ My people are destroyed for want of knowledge.
Because you rejected knowledge,
I will also reject you as cohen for me.
Because you forgot the Torah of your God,
I will also forget your children.
⁷ The more they increased in number,
the more they sinned against me.
I will change their glory into shame.
⁸ They feed on the sin of my people
and are greedy for their crimes.
⁹ But the cohen will fare
no better than the people;
I will punish him for his ways
and pay him back for his deeds.
¹⁰ They will eat but not have enough
and consort with whores but have no children,
because they stopped listening to Adonai.
¹¹ Whoring and wine, both old and new,
take away my people’s wits.
¹² My people consult their piece of wood,
their diviner’s wand speaks to them;
for the spirit of whoring makes them err,
they go off whoring, deserting their God.
¹³ They sacrifice on the mountain peaks
and offer incense on the hills
under oaks, poplars and pistachio trees;
because they give good shade.
Therefore your daughters behave like whores,
And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
¹⁴ I won’t punish your daughters when they act like whores,
or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery;
because the men are themselves going off with whores
and sacrificing with prostitutes.
Yes, a people without understanding
will come to ruin.”

¹⁵ If you, Isra’el, prostitute yourself,
still Y’hudah has no need to incur such guilt.
Don’t go to Gilgal or up to Beit-Aven,
and don’t swear, “As Adonai lives.”
¹⁶ For Isra’el is stubborn as a stubborn cow;
will Adonai now feed them like a lamb in a big pasture?
¹⁷ Efrayim is joined to idols;
let him alone!
¹⁸ When they finish carousing, they start their whoring;
their rulers deeply love dishonor.
¹⁹ The wind will carry them off in its wings
and their sacrifices bring them nothing but shame.

5 “Hear this, cohanim!
Pay attention, house of Isra’el!
Listen, house of the king!
For judgment is coming to you.
You have become a snare for Mitzpah
and a net spread on Tavor.
² The rebels have deepened their slaughter,
and I am rejected by all of them.

³ “I know Efrayim;
Isra’el is not hidden from me;
for now, Efrayim, you are a whore;
Isra’el is defiled.”

⁴ Their deeds will not allow them
to return to their God,
for the spirit of whoring is in them,
and they don’t know Adonai.
⁵ Isra’el’s arrogance will testify in his face;
Isra’el and Efrayim will stumble in their crimes;
Y’hudah too will stumble with them.
⁶ With their flocks and herds
they will go in search of Adonai.
But they won’t find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
⁷ They have betrayed Adonai,
by fathering foreign children.
Now within the month the invaders
will devour their lands.

⁸ “Blow the shofar in Giv‘ah,
a trumpet at Ramah;
sound an alarm at Beit-Aven:
‘Behind you, Binyamin!’
⁹ Efrayim will be laid waste
when the day for punishment comes;
I am announcing to the tribes of Isra’el
what will surely happen.
¹⁰ The leaders of Y’hudah are like men
who move boundary stones;
I will pour my fury out
upon them like water.
¹¹ Efrayim is oppressed, crushed by the judgment,
because he deliberately sought out futility.
¹² Therefore I am like a moth to Efrayim
and like rottenness to the house of Y’hudah.
¹³ When Efrayim saw his sickness
and Y’hudah his wound,
Efrayim went to Ashur
and sent envoys to a warring king;
but he can’t heal you
or cure your wound.
¹⁴ For to Efrayim I will be like a lion,
and like a young lion to the house of Y’hudah —
I will tear them up and go away;
I will carry them off, and no one will rescue.
¹⁵ I will go and return to my place,
till they admit their guilt and search for me,
seeking me eagerly in their distress.”

6 Come, let us return to Adonai;
for he has torn, and he will heal us;
he has struck, and he will bind our wounds.
² After two days, he will revive us;
on the third day, he will raise us up;
and we will live in his presence.
³ Let us know, let us strive to know Adonai.
That he will come is as certain as morning;
he will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rains that water the earth.
⁴ “Efrayim, what should I do to you?
Y’hudah, what should I do to you?
For your ‘faithful love’ is like a morning cloud,
like dew that disappears quickly.
⁵ This is why I have cut them to pieces by the prophets,
slaughtered them with the words from my mouth —
the judgment on you shines out like light.
⁶ For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices,
knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁷ “But they, just like men, have broken the covenant,
they have been faithless in dealing with me.
⁸ Gil‘ad is a city of criminals,
covered with bloody footprints;
⁹ just as bands of robbers wait to ambush someone,
so does a gang of cohanim.
They commit murder on the road to Sh’khem!
Their conduct is an outrage!
¹⁰ In the house of Isra’el
I have seen a horrible thing;
whoring is found there in Efrayim,
Isra’el is defiled.
¹¹ For you, too, Y’hudah,
a harvest will come!

“When I restore the fortunes of my people,
7 when I am ready to heal Isra’el,
the crimes of Efrayim confront me,
along with the wickedness of Shomron.
For they keep practicing deceit;
thieves break in, bands of robbers raid outside.
² They never say to themselves
that I remember all their evil.
Now their own deeds surround them;
they are right in front of me.
³ They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the leaders with their lies.
⁴ They are all adulterers,
like an oven heated by the baker,
who doesn’t stoke the fire
from kneading time till the dough has risen.

⁵ “On their king’s special day
the leaders inflame him with wine,
and he joins hands with scorners,
⁶ who ready themselves like an oven
while they wait for their chance.
Their baker sleeps through the night;
then in the morning it bursts into flame.
⁷ They are all as hot as an oven,
and they devour their judges.
All their kings have fallen;
not one of them calls out to me.

⁸ “Efrayim mixes himself with the peoples,
Efrayim has become a half-baked cake.
⁹ Foreigners have eaten up his strength,
but he doesn’t know it;
yes, gray hairs appear on him here and there,
but he doesn’t know it.
¹⁰ The pride of Isra’el testifies in his face,
but in spite of all this they haven’t returned
to Adonai their God or sought him.
¹¹ Efrayim behaves like a silly, foolish dove —
going to Egypt, then to Ashur for help.
¹² Even as they go, I will spread my net over them;
I will bring them down like birds from the sky;
I will discipline them, as their assembly was told.
¹³ Woe to them! for they have strayed from me.
Destruction to them! for they have wronged me.
Am I supposed to redeem them,
when they have spoken lies against me?
¹⁴ They have not cried out to me from their hearts,
even though they wail on their beds.
They assemble themselves for grain and wine,
yet turn away from me.
¹⁵ It was I who trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They return, but not upward;
they are like an unreliable bow.
Their leaders will die by the sword
because of their angry talk.
They will become a laughingstock
in the land of Egypt.

8 “Put the shofar to your lips!
Like a vulture [he swoops down] on the house of Adonai,
because they have violated my covenant
and sinned intentionally against my Torah.
² Will they cry out to me,
‘We are Isra’el, God, we know you’?
³ Isra’el has thrown away what is good;
the enemy will pursue him.
⁴ They make kings, but without my authority;
they appoint leaders, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they make themselves idols,
but these can lead only to their own destruction.
⁵ Your calf, Shomron, has been thrown away;
my fury burns against them.
How long will it be until they are able
to make themselves clean?
⁶ Here is what Isra’el produces:
a craftsman makes something — it’s a non-god;
the calf of Shomron will be broken to pieces.
⁷ For they sow the wind,
so they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no ears,
so it will yield no flour;
and if it does yield any,
foreigners will swallow it up.
⁸ Isra’el is swallowed up;
now they are among the Goyim
like a vessel nobody wants.
⁹ For they have gone up to Ashur;
like a wild donkey, alone by itself,
Efrayim has bargained for lovers.
¹⁰ But even if they bargain among the Goyim,
now I will round them up.
Soon they will start to feel the burden
of these kings and leaders.
¹¹ For Efrayim keeps building altars for sin;
yes, altars are sinful for him.
¹² I write him so many things from my Torah,
yet he considers them foreign.
¹³ They offer me sacrifices of flesh and eat them,
but Adonai does not accept them.
Now he will recall their crimes and punish their sins —
they will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ For Isra’el forgot his maker and built palaces;
and Y’hudah made more fortified cities;
but I will send fire on his cities,
and it will consume their strongholds.”

9 Don’t rejoice, Isra’el!
Don’t enjoy yourselves as other peoples do;
for you have gone whoring away from your God,
you love being hired as a whore on every grain-floor.
² Threshing-floor and winepress won’t feed them,
and new wine will disappoint her.
³ They won’t remain in the land of Adonai;
instead, Efrayim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Ashur.
⁴ They will not pour out wine offerings to Adonai;
they will not be pleasing to him.
Their sacrifices will be for them like mourners’ food —
everyone eating it will be polluted.
For their food will be merely to satisfy their appetite;
it will not come into the house of Adonai.
⁵ What will you do at a designated time,
on a day which is a festival for Adonai?
⁶ For suppose they escape the destruction —
Egypt will round them up,
Memphis will bury them.
And their precious treasures of silver?
Nettles will possess them,
thorns will be in their tents.
⁷ The days of punishment have come,
the days of retribution are here,
and Isra’el knows it.
[Yet they cry,] “The prophet is a fool,
the man of the spirit has gone crazy!”
Because your iniquity is so great,
the hostility [against you] is great.
⁸ The watchman of Efrayim is with my God,
but a prophet has a fowler’s snare set on all his paths
and hostility even in the house of his God.
⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves,
as in the days of Giv‘ah.
He will remember their guilt,
and he will punish their sins.

¹⁰ “When I found Isra’el, it was like finding
grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing
a fig tree’s first figs in its first season.
But as soon as they came to Ba‘al-P‘or,
they dedicated themselves to something shameful;
they became as loathsome
as the thing they loved.
¹¹ The glory of Efrayim will fly away like a bird —
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
¹² Even if they raise their children,
I will destroy them till none is left —
and woe to them when I leave them, too!”

¹³ Efrayim, as I see it, is like Tzor,
planted in a pleasant place;
but Efrayim will bring out his children
to the slaughterer.
¹⁴ Adonai, give them — what will you give?
Give them wombs that miscarry and dried-up breasts!
¹⁵ “All their wickedness was already there in Gilgal;
that’s where I came to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will expel them from my house,
I will love them no more;
all their leaders are rebels.
¹⁶ Efrayim has been struck down,
their root has been dried up,
they will bear no fruit.
Even if they do give birth,
I will kill their cherished offspring.”

¹⁷ My God will cast them aside,
because they wouldn’t listen to him,
and they will become wanderers
among the Goyim.

10 Isra’el was a luxuriant vine,
freely putting forth fruit.
As his fruit increased,
he increased his altars;
as his land got better,
he improved his standing-stones.
² Their heart is divided;
now they will bear their guilt.
He will break down their altars
and destroy their standing-stones.
³ For now they will say,
“We have no king,
because we didn’t fear Adonai —
and what could a king do for us, anyway?”
⁴ They mouth words,
swearing falsely, making treaties.
Thus judgment spreads like poisonous weeds
in the furrows of a field.

⁵ The inhabitants of Shomron are frightened
of the calf-gods of Beit-Aven.
Its people mourn over it;
its priests tremble over it,
over its glory, which has left it.
⁶ It will be carried to Ashur
as a present for a warring king.
Efrayim will be put to shame,
and Isra’el be ashamed of his own advice.
⁷ Shomron’s king will perish
like foam on the surface of the water.
⁸ Destruction will come to the high places of Aven,
that is, to the sin of Isra’el.
Thorns and thistles will grow over their altars;
and they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹ “Since the days of Giv‘ah you have sinned, Isra’el.
There they took their stand.
For these arrogant people at Giv‘ah,
war was insufficient punishment.
¹⁰ When I wish to, I will discipline them;
and the peoples will be gathered against them
to discipline them for their two crimes.”

¹¹ Efrayim is a well-taught cow —
it loves to tread the grain,
and I have spared her fair neck.
But I will put Efrayim in harness,
Y’hudah will have to plow,
Ya‘akov will harrow his own land.
¹² If you sow righteousness for yourselves,
you will reap according to grace.
Break up unused ground for yourselves,
because it is time to seek Adonai,
till he comes and rains down
righteousness upon you.
¹³ You have plowed wickedness, reaped iniquity
and eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you trusted in your own way,
in your large numbers of warriors,
¹⁴ turmoil will erupt among your peoples,
and all your fortresses will be destroyed;
just as Shalman destroyed Beit-Arbel
on the day of battle,
when mothers were dashed to pieces
right along with their children.
¹⁵ Thus will be done to you, Beit-El,
because of your great wickedness;
at dawn the king of Isra’el
will be completely cut off.

11 “When Isra’el was a child, I loved him;
and out of Egypt I called my son.
² But the more [the prophets] called them,
the farther they went from them.
They sacrificed to the ba‘alim
and offered incense to idols.
³ “Yet it was I who taught Efrayim to walk;
I took them by their arms.
But they did not know that it was I
who was healing them,
⁴ who was guiding them on through human means
with reins made of love.
With them I was like someone removing
the yoke from their jaws,
and I bent down to feed them.
⁵ He will not return to the land of Egypt,
but Ashur will be his king,
because they refused to repent.
⁶ The sword will fall on his cities,
destroying the bars of his gates,
because they follow their own advice.
⁷ My people are hanging in suspense
about returning to me;
and though they call them upwards,
nobody makes a move.
⁸ Efrayim, how can I give you up,
or surrender you, Isra’el?
How could I treat you like Admah
or make you like Tzvoyim?
My heart recoils at the idea,
as compassion warms within me.
⁹ I will not give vent to the fierceness of my rage,
I will not return to destroy Efrayim;
for I am God, not a human being,
the Holy One among you;
so I will not come in fury.
¹⁰ They will go after Adonai,
who will roar like a lion;
for he will roar, and the children will come
trembling from the west.
¹¹ They will tremble like a bird as they come from Egypt,
like a dove as they come from the land of Ashur;
and I will resettle them in their own houses,

says Adonai.

12 ^(11:12) “Efrayim surrounds me with lies
and the house of Isra’el with deceit.
Y’hudah still rules with God
and is faithful with holy ones.
^2 (1) Efrayim is chasing the wind,
pursuing the wind from the east.
All day he piles up lies and desolation —
they make a covenant with Ashur,
while sending olive oil to Egypt.

^3 (2) Adonai also has a grievance against Y’hudah;
he will punish Ya‘akov according to his ways
and pay him back for his misdeeds.
^4 (3) In the womb he took his brother by the heel;
in the strength of his manhood he fought with God.
^5 (4) Yes, he fought with an angel and won;
he wept and pleaded with him.
Then at Beit-El he found him,
and there he would [later] speak with us —
^6 (5) Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot;
Adonai is his name!
^7 (6) So you, return to your God;
hold fast to grace and justice;
and always put your hope in your God.

^8 (7) “A huckster keeps false scales,
and he loves to cheat.
^9 (8) Efrayim says, ‘I have gotten so rich!
I have made me a fortune!
And in all my profits no one will find
anything wrong or sinful.’

^10 (9) “But I am Adonai your God,
from the land of Egypt.
Again I will make you live in tents,
as in the days of the established festival.
^11 (10) I have spoken to the prophets;
it was I who gave vision after vision;
through the prophets I gave examples
to show what it would all be like.
^12 (11) Is Gil‘ad given to iniquity?
Yes, they have become worthless.
In Gilgal they sacrifice to bulls;
therefore their altars are like piles of stones
in a plowed field.”

^13 (12) Ya‘akov fled to the land of Aram.
There Isra’el slaved to win a wife;
for a wife he tended sheep.
^14 (13) By a prophet Adonai brought Isra’el up from Egypt,
and by a prophet he was protected.
^15 (14) Efrayim has given bitter provocation,
so the penalty for his bloodshed will be thrown down on him,
and his Lord will repay him for his insult.
13 “When Efrayim spoke, there was trembling;
he was a power in Isra’el.
But when he incurred guilt through Ba‘al,
he died.
² So now they keep adding sin to sin,
casting images from their silver;
idols they invent for themselves,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
‘Sacrifice to them,’ they say.
Men give kisses to calves!
³ Therefore they will be like a morning cloud,
like the dew that disappears early,
like chaff blown by wind from the threshing-floor,
or like smoke that goes out the window.
⁴ Still, I am Adonai your God,
from the land of Egypt;
and you don’t know any God but me
or, other than me, any Savior.
⁵ I knew you in the desert,
in a land of terrible drought.
⁶ When they were fed, they were satisfied;
when satisfied, they became proud.
Therefore they forgot me.
⁷ So now I have become like a lion to them;
like a leopard I will lurk by the road;
⁸ I will meet them like a bear
whose cubs have been taken away.
I will tear their hearts from their bodies.
I will devour them there like a lion,
like a wild animal ripping them up.
⁹ It is your destruction, Isra’el,
although your help is in me.
¹⁰ So now, where is your king,
to save you in all your cities?
Where are your judges, of whom you said,
‘Give me a king and leaders’?
¹¹ I gave you a king in my anger;
and in my fury I took him away.

¹² “Efrayim’s guilt has been wrapped up,
his sin is stored away.
¹³ The pain of being born will come to him;
but he is an unwise son.
The time has come; and he shouldn’t delay,
there at the mouth of the womb.
¹⁴ Should I ransom them from the power of Sh’ol?
Should I redeem them from death?
Where are your plagues, death;
where is your destruction, Sh’ol?
My eyes are closed to compassion.
¹⁵ For though he flourishes among the reeds,
an east wind will come, a wind from Adonai,
blowing up from the desert.
Then his water source will dry up,
then his spring will fail —
it will plunder his treasury,
removing every precious thing.”