Hosea 7

Revised Geneva Translation

7 “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they have dealt falsely. And the thief comes in and the robber plunders outside.

² “And they do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own inventions have surrounded them. They are in My sight.

³ “They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

⁴ “They are all adulterers, like bakers who cease to heat an oven after kneading the dough, until it is leavened.

⁵ “In the day of the king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine. He stretches out his hand to scorners.

⁶ “For they have made ready their heart like an oven while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all night. In the morning it burns as a flame of fire.

⁷ “They are all as hot as an oven and have devoured their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one among them who calls to Me.

⁸ “Ephraim has mixed himself among the people. Ephraim is as an unturned cake on the hearth.

⁹ “Strangers have devoured his strength and he does not know it. Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he does not know.

¹⁰ “And the pride of Israel testifies to his face. And they do not return to the LORD their God or seek Him for all this.

¹¹ “Also, Ephraim is like a dove, deceived, without heart. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.

¹² “When they shall go, I will spread My net upon them and draw them down as the birds of the heaven. I will chastise them, as their Congregation has heard.

¹³ “Woe to them! For they have fled away from Me. Destruction to them, because they have transgressed against Me. Though I have redeemed them, they have still spoken lies against Me.

¹⁴ “And they have not cried to Me with their hearts when they howled upon their beds. They assembled themselves for grain and wine. They rebel against Me.

¹⁵ “Though I have bound and strengthened their arm, they still imagine mischief against Me.

¹⁶ “They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a deceitful bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword because of the rage of their tongues. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.”