Font Size
Hosea 5-7
The Message
Hosea 5-7
The Message
They Wouldn’t Recognize God If They Saw Him
5 1-2 “Listen to this, priests!
Attention, people of Israel!
Royal family—all ears!
You’re in charge of justice around here.
But what have you done? Exploited people at Mizpah,
ripped them off on Tabor,
Victimized them at Shittim.
I’m going to punish the lot of you.
3-4 “I know you, Ephraim, inside and out.
Yes, Israel, I see right through you!
Ephraim, you’ve played your sex-and-religion games long enough.
All Israel is thoroughly polluted.
They couldn’t turn to God if they wanted to.
Their evil life is a bad habit.
Every breath they take is a whore’s breath.
They wouldn’t recognize God if they saw me.
5-7 “Bloated by arrogance, big as a house,
they’re a public disgrace,
The lot of them—Israel, Ephraim, Judah—
lurching and weaving down their guilty streets.
When they decide to get their lives together
and go off looking for God once again,
They’ll find it’s too late.
I, God, will be long gone.
They’ve played fast and loose with me for too long,
filling the country with their bastard offspring.
A plague of locusts will
devastate their violated land.
8-9 “Blow the ram’s horn shofar in Gibeah,
the bugle in Ramah!
Signal the invasion of Sin City!
Scare the daylights out of Benjamin!
Ephraim will be left wasted,
a lifeless moonscape.
I’m telling it straight, the unvarnished truth,
to the tribes of Israel.
10 “Israel’s rulers are crooks and thieves,
cheating the people of their land,
And I’m angry, good and angry.
Every inch of their bodies is going to feel my anger.
11-12 “Brutal Ephraim is himself brutalized—
a taste of his own medicine!
He was so determined
to do it his own worthless way.
Therefore I’m pus to Ephraim,
dry rot in the house of Judah.
13 “When Ephraim saw he was sick
and Judah saw his pus-filled sores,
Ephraim went running to Assyria,
went for help to the big king.
But he can’t heal you.
He can’t cure your oozing sores.
14-15 “I’m a grizzly charging Ephraim,
a grizzly with cubs charging Judah.
I’ll rip them to pieces—yes, I will!
No one can stop me now.
I’ll drag them off.
No one can help them.
Then I’ll go back to where I came from
until they come to their senses.
When they finally hit rock bottom,
maybe they’ll come looking for me.”
Gangs of Priests Assaulting Worshipers
6 1-3 “Come on, let’s go back to God.
He hurt us, but he’ll heal us.
He hit us hard,
but he’ll put us right again.
In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
By the third day he’ll have made us brand-new,
Alive and on our feet,
fit to face him.
We’re ready to study God,
eager for God-knowledge.
As sure as dawn breaks,
so sure is his daily arrival.
He comes as rain comes,
as spring rain refreshing the ground.”
* * *
4-7 “What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What do I make of you, Judah?
Your declarations of love last no longer
than morning mist and predawn dew.
That’s why I use prophets to shake you to attention,
why my words cut you to the quick:
To wake you up to my judgment
blazing like light.
I’m after love that lasts, not more religion.
I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.
You broke the covenant—just like Adam!
You broke faith with me—ungrateful wretches!
8-9 “Gilead has become Crime City—
blood on the sidewalks, blood on the streets.
It used to be robbers who mugged pedestrians.
Now it’s gangs of priests
Assaulting worshipers on their way to Shechem.
Nothing is sacred to them.
10 “I saw a shocking thing in the country of Israel:
Ephraim worshiping in a religious whorehouse,
and Israel in the mud right there with him.
11 “You’re as bad as the worst of them, Judah.
You’ve been sowing wild oats. Now it’s harvest time.”
Despite All the Signs, Israel Ignores God
7 1-2 “Every time I gave Israel a fresh start,
wiped the slate clean and got them going again,
Ephraim soon filled the slate with new sins,
the treachery of Samaria written out in bold print.
Two-faced and double-tongued,
they steal you blind, pick you clean.
It never crosses their mind
that I keep account of their every crime.
They’re mud-spattered head to toe with the residue of sin.
I see who they are and what they’ve done.
3-7 “They entertain the king with their evil circus,
delight the princes with their acrobatic lies.
They’re a bunch of overheated adulterers,
like an oven that holds its heat
From the kneading of the dough
to the rising of the bread.
On the royal holiday the princes get drunk
on wine and the frenzy of the mocking mob.
They’re like wood stoves,
red-hot with lust.
Through the night their passion is banked;
in the morning it blazes up, flames hungrily licking.
Murderous and volcanic,
they incinerate their rulers.
Their kings fall one by one,
and no one pays any attention to me.
8-10 “Ephraim mingles with the pagans, dissipating himself.
Ephraim is half-baked.
Strangers suck him dry
but he doesn’t even notice.
His hair has turned gray—
he doesn’t notice.
Bloated by arrogance, big as a house,
Israel’s a public disgrace.
Israel lumbers along oblivious to God,
despite all the signs, ignoring God.
11-16 “Ephraim is bird-brained,
mindless, clueless,
First chirping after Egypt,
then fluttering after Assyria.
I’ll throw my net over them. I’ll clip their wings.
I’ll teach them to mind me!
Doom! They’ve run away from home.
Now they’re really in trouble! They’ve defied me.
And I’m supposed to help them
while they feed me a line of lies?
Instead of crying out to me in heartfelt prayer,
they whoop it up in bed with their whores,
Gash themselves bloody in their sex-and-religion orgies,
but turn their backs on me.
I’m the one who gave them good minds and healthy bodies,
and how am I repaid? With evil scheming!
They turn, but not to me—
turn here, then there, like a weather vane.
Their rulers will be cut down, murdered—
just deserts for their mocking blasphemies.
And the final sentence?
Ridicule in the court of world opinion.”
Hosea 5-7
New International Version
Hosea 5-7
New International Version
Judgment Against Israel
5 “Hear this, you priests!
Pay attention, you Israelites!
Listen, royal house!
This judgment(A) is against you:
You have been a snare(B) at Mizpah,
a net(C) spread out on Tabor.
2 The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter.(D)
I will discipline all of them.(E)
3 I know all about Ephraim;
Israel is not hidden(F) from me.
Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution;
Israel is corrupt.(G)
4 “Their deeds do not permit them
to return(H) to their God.
A spirit of prostitution(I) is in their heart;
they do not acknowledge(J) the Lord.
5 Israel’s arrogance testifies(K) against them;
the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble(L) in their sin;
Judah also stumbles with them.(M)
6 When they go with their flocks and herds
to seek the Lord,(N)
they will not find him;
he has withdrawn(O) himself from them.
7 They are unfaithful(P) to the Lord;
they give birth to illegitimate(Q) children.
When they celebrate their New Moon feasts,(R)
he will devour[a](S) their fields.
8 “Sound the trumpet(T) in Gibeah,(U)
the horn in Ramah.(V)
Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven[b];(W)
lead on, Benjamin.
9 Ephraim will be laid waste(X)
on the day of reckoning.(Y)
Among the tribes of Israel
I proclaim what is certain.(Z)
10 Judah’s leaders are like those
who move boundary stones.(AA)
I will pour out my wrath(AB) on them
like a flood of water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed,
trampled in judgment,
intent on pursuing idols.[c](AC)
12 I am like a moth(AD) to Ephraim,
like rot(AE) to the people of Judah.
13 “When Ephraim(AF) saw his sickness,
and Judah his sores,
then Ephraim turned to Assyria,(AG)
and sent to the great king for help.(AH)
But he is not able to cure(AI) you,
not able to heal your sores.(AJ)
14 For I will be like a lion(AK) to Ephraim,
like a great lion to Judah.
I will tear them to pieces(AL) and go away;
I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.(AM)
15 Then I will return to my lair(AN)
until they have borne their guilt(AO)
and seek my face(AP)—
in their misery(AQ)
they will earnestly seek me.(AR)”
Israel Unrepentant
6 “Come, let us return(AS) to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces(AT)
but he will heal us;(AU)
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.(AV)
2 After two days he will revive us;(AW)
on the third day(AX) he will restore(AY) us,
that we may live in his presence.
3 Let us acknowledge the Lord;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,(AZ)
like the spring rains that water the earth.(BA)”
4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?(BB)
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.(BC)
5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
I killed you with the words of my mouth(BD)—
then my judgments go forth like the sun.[d](BE)
6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,(BF)
and acknowledgment(BG) of God rather than burnt offerings.(BH)
7 As at Adam,[e] they have broken the covenant;(BI)
they were unfaithful(BJ) to me there.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,(BK)
stained with footprints of blood.
9 As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,(BL)
so do bands of priests;
they murder(BM) on the road to Shechem,
carrying out their wicked schemes.(BN)
10 I have seen a horrible(BO) thing in Israel:
There Ephraim is given to prostitution,
Israel is defiled.(BP)
11 “Also for you, Judah,
a harvest(BQ) is appointed.
“Whenever I would restore the fortunes(BR) of my people,
7 1 whenever I would heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim are exposed
and the crimes of Samaria revealed.(BS)
They practice deceit,(BT)
thieves break into houses,(BU)
bandits rob in the streets;(BV)
2 but they do not realize
that I remember(BW) all their evil deeds.(BX)
Their sins engulf them;(BY)
they are always before me.
3 “They delight the king with their wickedness,
the princes with their lies.(BZ)
4 They are all adulterers,(CA)
burning like an oven
whose fire the baker need not stir
from the kneading of the dough till it rises.
5 On the day of the festival of our king
the princes become inflamed with wine,(CB)
and he joins hands with the mockers.(CC)
6 Their hearts are like an oven;(CD)
they approach him with intrigue.
Their passion smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot as an oven;
they devour their rulers.
All their kings fall,(CE)
and none of them calls(CF) on me.
8 “Ephraim mixes(CG) with the nations;
Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over.
9 Foreigners sap his strength,(CH)
but he does not realize it.
His hair is sprinkled with gray,
but he does not notice.
10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against him,(CI)
but despite all this
he does not return(CJ) to the Lord his God
or search(CK) for him.
11 “Ephraim is like a dove,(CL)
easily deceived and senseless—
now calling to Egypt,(CM)
now turning to Assyria.(CN)
12 When they go, I will throw my net(CO) over them;
I will pull them down like the birds in the sky.
When I hear them flocking together,
I will catch them.
13 Woe(CP) to them,
because they have strayed(CQ) from me!
Destruction to them,
because they have rebelled against me!
I long to redeem them
but they speak about me(CR) falsely.(CS)
14 They do not cry out to me from their hearts(CT)
but wail on their beds.
They slash themselves,[f] appealing to their gods
for grain and new wine,(CU)
but they turn away from me.(CV)
15 I trained(CW) them and strengthened their arms,
but they plot evil(CX) against me.
16 They do not turn to the Most High;(CY)
they are like a faulty bow.(CZ)
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of their insolent(DA) words.
For this they will be ridiculed(DB)
in the land of Egypt.(DC)
Footnotes
- Hosea 5:7 Or Now their New Moon feasts / will devour them and
- Hosea 5:8 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).
- Hosea 5:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
- Hosea 6:5 The meaning of the Hebrew for this line is uncertain.
- Hosea 6:7 Or Like Adam; or Like human beings
- Hosea 7:14 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts They gather together
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.