Hosea 4-6

English Standard Version

The Lord Accuses Israel

4 ^(A)Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
    for ^(B)the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
    and ^(C)no knowledge of God in the land;
²^(D)there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
    they break all bounds, and ^(E)bloodshed follows bloodshed.
³Therefore ^(F)the land mourns,
    and all who dwell in it languish,
^(G)and also the beasts of the field
    and the birds of the heavens,
    ^(H)and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

⁴^(I)Yet let no one contend,
    and let none accuse,
    for with you is ^(J)my contention, O priest.^[a]
⁵You shall stumble by day;
    the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
    and I will destroy ^(K)your mother.
⁶My people are destroyed ^(L)for lack of knowledge;
    ^(M)because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you ^(N)from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
    ^(O)I also will forget your children.

⁷^(P)The more they increased,
    the more they sinned against me;
    ^(Q)I will change their glory into shame.
⁸^(R)They feed on the sin^[b] of my people;
    they are greedy for their iniquity.
⁹^(S)And it shall be like people, like priest;
    I will punish them for their ways
    and repay them for their deeds.
¹⁰^(T)They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
    they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
    to cherish ¹¹whoredom, wine, and new wine,
    which ^(U)take away the understanding.
¹²My people ^(V)inquire of a piece of wood,
    and their walking staff gives them oracles.
For ^(W)a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
    and they have left their God to play the whore.
¹³^(X)They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains
    and burn offerings on the hills,
^(Y)under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
    because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the whore,
    and your brides commit adultery.
¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
    nor your brides when they commit adultery;
for ^(Z)the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
    and sacrifice with ^(AA)cult prostitutes,
and a people ^(AB)without understanding shall come to ruin.

¹⁵Though you play the whore, O ^(AC)Israel,
    let not ^(AD)Judah become guilty.
^(AE)Enter not into ^(AF)Gilgal,
    nor go up to ^(AG)Beth-aven,
    and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”
¹⁶Like a stubborn heifer,
    Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
    like a lamb in a broad pasture?

¹⁷^(AH)Ephraim is joined to idols;
    ^(AI)leave him alone.
¹⁸When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;
    ^(AJ)their rulers^[c] dearly love shame.
¹⁹^(AK)A wind has wrapped them^[d] in its wings,
    and they shall ^(AL)be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah

5 ^(AM)Hear this, O priests!
    Pay attention, O house of Israel!
Give ear, O house of the king!
    For the judgment is for you;
for ^(AN)you have been a snare at Mizpah
    and a net spread upon ^(AO)Tabor.
²And ^(AP)the revolters ^(AQ)have gone deep into slaughter,
    but ^(AR)I will discipline all of them.

³^(AS)I know Ephraim,
    and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;
    Israel is defiled.
⁴^(AT)Their deeds do not permit them
    to return to their God.
For ^(AU)the spirit of whoredom is within them,
    and they know not the Lord.

⁵^(AV)The pride of Israel testifies to his face;^[e]
    Israel and ^(AW)Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt;
    ^(AX)Judah also shall stumble with them.
⁶^(AY)With their flocks and herds they shall go
    to seek the Lord,
^(AZ)but they will not find him;
    ^(BA)he has withdrawn from them.
⁷^(BB)They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;
    for they have borne alien children.
    Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

⁸^(BC)Blow the horn in ^(BD)Gibeah,
    the trumpet in ^(BE)Ramah.
Sound the alarm at ^(BF)Beth-aven;
    we follow you,^[f] O Benjamin!
⁹Ephraim shall become a desolation
    in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
    I make known what is sure.
¹⁰The princes of Judah have become
    like ^(BG)those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
    my wrath like water.
¹¹Ephraim is ^(BH)oppressed, crushed in judgment,
    because he was determined to go after filth.^[g]
¹²But I am ^(BI)like a moth to Ephraim,
    and ^(BJ)like dry rot to the house of Judah.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness,
    and Judah ^(BK)his wound,
then Ephraim went ^(BL)to Assyria,
    and sent to the great king.^[h]
^(BM)But he is not able to cure you
    or heal ^(BN)your wound.
¹⁴For I will be ^(BO)like a lion to ^(BP)Ephraim,
    and like a young lion to the house of ^(BQ)Judah.
^(BR)I, even I, will tear and go away;
    I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

¹⁵^(BS)I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and ^(BT)in their distress earnestly seek me.

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

6 “Come, let us ^(BU)return to the Lord;
    for ^(BV)he has torn us, that he may heal us;
    he has struck us down, and ^(BW)he will bind us up.
²After two days ^(BX)he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
³^(BY)Let us know; ^(BZ)let us press on to know the Lord;
    ^(CA)his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us ^(CB)as the showers,
    ^(CC)as the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴What shall I do with you, ^(CD)O ^(CE)Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O ^(CF)Judah?
Your love is ^(CG)like a morning cloud,
    ^(CH)like the dew that goes early away.
⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
    I have slain them ^(CI)by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgment goes forth as the light.
⁶For ^(CJ)I desire steadfast love^[i] and not sacrifice,
    ^(CK)the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But ^(CL)like Adam they ^(CM)transgressed the covenant;
    ^(CN)there they dealt faithlessly with me.
⁸^(CO)Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    ^(CP)tracked with blood.
⁹As robbers ^(CQ)lie in wait for a man,
    so the priests band together;
they murder on the way to ^(CR)Shechem;
    they commit villainy.
¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
    ^(CS)Ephraim's whoredom is there; ^(CT)Israel is defiled.