Hosea 8

New King James Version

The Apostasy of Israel

8 “Set the ^[a]trumpet to your mouth!
He shall come ^(A)like an eagle against the house of the Lord,
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And rebelled against My law.
²^(B)Israel will cry to Me,
‘My God, ^(C)we know You!’
³Israel has rejected the good;
The enemy will pursue him.

⁴“They^(D) set up kings, but not by Me;
They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them.
From their silver and gold
They made idols for themselves—
That they might be cut off.
⁵Your ^[b]calf ^[c]is rejected, O Samaria!
My anger is aroused against them—
^(E)How long until they attain to innocence?
⁶For from Israel is even this:
A ^(F)workman made it, and it is not God;
But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

⁷“They^(G) sow the wind,
And reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no bud;
It shall never produce meal.
If it should produce,
^(H)Aliens would swallow it up.
⁸^(I)Israel is swallowed up;
Now they are among the Gentiles
^(J)Like a vessel in which is no pleasure.
⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like ^(K)a wild donkey alone by itself;
Ephraim ^(L)has hired lovers.
¹⁰Yes, though they have hired among the nations,
Now ^(M)I will gather them;
And they shall ^[d]sorrow a little,
Because of the ^[e]burden of ^(N)the king of princes.

¹¹“Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin,
They have become for him altars for sinning.
¹²I have written for him ^(O)the great things of My law,
But they were considered a strange thing.
¹³For the sacrifices of My offerings ^(P)they sacrifice flesh and eat it,
^(Q)But the Lord does not accept them.
^(R)Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.
They shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴“For^(S) Israel has forgotten ^(T)his Maker,
And has built ^[f]temples;
Judah also has multiplied ^(U)fortified cities;
But ^(V)I will send fire upon his cities,
And it shall devour his ^[g]palaces.”