Hosea 7-10

New Catholic Bible

¹ Whenever I decide to restore the fortunes of my people
    and prepare to heal Israel,
the guilt of Ephraim confronts me
    as well as the wicked deeds of Samaria.
They practice deceit;
    thieves break into houses
    while bandits plunder in the streets.^[a]
2 But they somehow fail to remind themselves
    that I remember all their wickedness.
I will not forget their wicked deeds;
    they are constantly before my eyes.

³ They delight the king with their wickedness
    and the princes with their treachery.
⁴ All of them are adulterers;
    they are like an oven all ablaze
whose fire the baker does not need to stoke
    from the kneading of the dough until it has risen.
⁵ On the festal day of their king,
    the princes become inflamed with wine
while the king extends his hand
    to those who mock him.^[b]
6 For they are heated like ovens
    while their heart burns within them.
All through the night their passion slumbers;
    in the morning it blazes forth like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are as hot as ovens,
    and they consume their rulers.
All their kings have fallen;
    not one of them calls out to me.

⁸ Ephraim mixes with the nations;
    Ephraim is a half-baked cake.^[c]
9 Foreigners have sapped his strength,
    but he is unaware of it.
His hair is beginning to turn gray,
    but he does not realize it.
¹⁰ Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,
    but despite all this,
they do not return to the Lord, their God,
    nor do they seek him.
¹¹ Ephraim has become like a dove,
    silly and without any sense.
They call upon Egypt;
    they turn to Assyria.
¹² Wherever they turn,
    I will cast my net over them.
I will bring them down
    like birds of the sky.
I will discipline them
    because of their evil deeds.
¹³ Woe to them,
    for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them,
    for they have rebelled against me!
I longed to redeem them,
    but they continued to tell lies about me.
¹⁴ They have not cried out to me from their hearts
    while they wailed upon their beds.
When they gash themselves to obtain grain and new wine,^[d]
    they are still rebelling against me.
¹⁵ Even though I supported and strengthened them,
    they devise evil plots against me.
¹⁶ Everything they devise is of no avail;
    they are like a defective bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
    because of their insolent words.
As a result, they will be ridiculed
    in the land of Egypt.

¹ Put the trumpet to your lips!
    An eagle is circling over the sanctuary of the Lord.
The people have broken my covenant
    and been unfaithful to my law.
² Israel cries out to me,
    “We acknowledge you to be our God.”
³ However, Israel has rejected what is good;
    the enemy will pursue them.
^4 [e]They anointed kings, but not by my authority;
    they appointed princes, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they made idols for themselves,
    idols for their own destruction.
⁵ I reject your calf-idol, O Samaria!
    My anger burns against them.
How long will it be
    before they regain their innocence?
⁶ The calf was made in Israel;
    it is no god at all,
    for it was fashioned by a craftsman.
The calf of Samaria
    will be broken to pieces.
⁷ When Israel sows the wind,
    it will reap the whirlwind.
When the standing grain has no heads,
    it will yield no flour.
And if it were to yield flour,
    foreigners would devour it.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up;
    now they are among the nations
    like something of no value.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria
    like a wild ass wandering on its own;
    Ephraim has bargained for lovers.
¹⁰ Because they have bargained with the nations,
    I will now gather them up.
They will soon begin to suffer
    under the weight of kings and princes.
¹¹ Although Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
    those altars became occasions for sin.
¹² I provided Ephraim with many written laws,
    but they regarded such laws as irrelevant.
¹³ Although they offer sacrifices to me
    and eat the meat,
    the Lord does not accept them.
On the contrary, he will remember their iniquity
    and punish their sins;
    they will be forced to return to Egypt.
¹⁴ Israel has forgotten his Maker
    and built palaces;
Judah also has fortified many cities.
    However, I will send fire upon his cities
    that will devour their citadels.

¹ Do not rejoice, O Israel!
    Do not exult like the other nations!
For you have been unfaithful to your God;
    you have loved the wages of a prostitute
    upon every threshing floor.^[f]
2 Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed them,
    and the new wine will fail them.
³ They will not remain in the land of the Lord;
    Ephraim will return to Egypt^[g]
    and eat unclean food in Assyria.
⁴ No longer will they pour libations of wine to the Lord,
    nor will their sacrifices please him.
To them such sacrifice will be like mourners’ bread
    that defiles all who eat of it.
Whatever food they have will be for them alone;
    it cannot enter the house of the Lord.
⁵ What will you do on the solemn feasts,
    on the festival day of the Lord?^[h]
6 Even if the people escape destruction,
    Egypt will gather them
    and Memphis^[i] will bury them.
Weeds will swallow up their treasures of silver,
    and thorns will overrun their tents.

⁷ The days of punishment have come;
    the days of retribution are here.
Israel cries out,
    “The prophet is a fool,
    the inspired man is a maniac.”
Because your iniquity is great,
    all the greater is your hostility.
⁸ The prophet has been appointed by God
    to serve as a watchman over Ephraim.
Yet snares await him on all his paths
    and he incurs hostility in the house of his God.
⁹ They have immersed themselves in corruption
    as in the days of Gibeah.^[j]
God will remember their iniquity
    and punish their sins.

¹⁰ It was like finding grapes in the desert
    when I found Israel.
When I saw your fathers,
    it was like seeing the early frost on a fig tree.
However, when they came to Baal-peor,
    they consecrated themselves to a shameful idol,
    and they became as loathsome as the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—
    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
¹² Even if they were to bear children,
    I will take away from them every single one.
Woe to them
    when I turn away from them!
¹³ Ephraim once seemed to me like Tyre,
    planted in a beautiful meadow.
But now Ephraim will be required
    to lead out his children for slaughter.
¹⁴ Give them, O Lord—
    what will you give?
Give them wombs that miscarry^[l]
    and dried-up breasts.
¹⁵ All of their wickedness had its root in Gilgal;^[m]
    it was there that I came to hate them.
Because of their evil deeds,
    I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;
    all of their rulers are rebels.
¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken;
    their root is withered,
    and they yield no fruit.
Even if they bring forth children,
    I will slay the cherished offspring of their womb.
¹⁷ My God will cast them off
    because they have not listened to him;
    they will become wanderers among the nations.

¹ Israel is a luxuriant vine
    bringing forth a great bounty of fruit.
The more his fruit increased,
    the more altars he built.
The more prosperous his land became,
    the richer he made the sacred pillars.
² Their heart is false;
    now they must pay the penalty for the guilt.
God himself will destroy their altars
    and demolish their sacred pillars.
³ Then they will say,
    “We have no king
    because we did not serve the Lord.
But even if we had a king,
    what could he do for us?”
⁴ They make many empty promises,
    swear false oaths and draw up treaties.
Thus litigation spreads like poisonous weeds
    in the furrows of the fields.
⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria tremble
    for the calf of Beth-aven.
The people mourn for it,
    and its idolatrous priests mourn over it,
    over its glory that has departed from it.
⁶ It will be carried to Assyria
    as an offering to the great king.
Ephraim will be disgraced,
    and Israel will be shamed by his schemes.
⁷ The king of Samaria will float away
    like a flimsy twig drifting on the water.
⁸ The high places of Aven will be destroyed,
    the shrines where Israel sinned.
Thorns and thistles shall flourish
    and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
    and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
⁹ Since the days of Gibeah,
    you have sinned, O Israel,
    and there you have remained.
Did not war overtake
    the evildoers in Gibeah?
¹⁰ I have come to confront the rebels
    and to chastise them.
Nations shall mass against them
    to punish them for their two crimes.
¹¹ Ephraim was a trained heifer
    that loved to thresh grain.
I myself laid a yoke
    upon her fair neck.
However, I will harness Ephraim;
    Judah will be forced to plow,
    and Jacob will harrow the land.
¹² Sow righteousness for yourselves,
    and reap a harvest of steadfast love.
Break up your fallow ground;
    it is time to seek the Lord
    so that he may come and rain down righteousness upon you.
¹³ However, you have plowed wickedness
    and reaped depravity;
    you have eaten the fruit of falsehood.
Because you have trusted in your chariots
    and in your multitude of warriors,
¹⁴ the tumult of war will engulf your people,
    and all your fortresses will be destroyed,
as Salman^[n] devastated Beth-arbel on the day of battle
    when mothers were dashed to pieces with their children.
¹⁵ Thus shall it be done to you, O Bethel,
    because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
    will be utterly destroyed.