Hosea

¹“Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over the LORD’s house, because they have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law. ²They cry to me, ‘My God, we, Israel, acknowledge you!’ ³Israel has cast off that which is good. The enemy will pursue him. ⁴They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I didn’t approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off. ⁵Let Samaria throw out his calf idol! My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity? ⁶For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. ⁷For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up. ⁸Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing. ⁹For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself. ¹⁰But although they sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them; and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones. ¹¹Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning. ¹²I wrote for him the many things of my law, but they were regarded as a strange thing. ¹³As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the LORD doesn’t accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt. ¹⁴For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and it will devour its fortresses.”