Hosea 7

¹ When I would restore the fortunes of my people, when I would heal Israel, the corruption of Ephraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely, the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid without.

² But they do not consider that I remember all their evil works. Now their deeds encompass them, they are before my face.

³ By their wickedness they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery.

⁴ They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven, whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

⁵ On the day of our king the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers.

⁶ For like an oven their hearts burn with intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷ All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen; and none of them calls upon me.

⁸ Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹ Aliens devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not.

¹⁰ The pride of Israel witnesses against him; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this.

¹¹ Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.

¹² As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them for their wicked deeds.

¹³ Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

¹⁴ They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves, they rebel against me.

¹⁵ Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me.

¹⁶ They turn to Baal; they are like a treacherous bow, their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.