Hosea 7

1  a When I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the evil deeds of b Samaria;
for c they deal falsely;
the thief breaks in,
and the bandits raid outside.
 2 But they do not consider
that d I remember all their evil.
Now e their deeds surround them;
f they are before my face.
 3 By their evil g they make h the king glad,
and the princes by their treachery.
 4  i They are all adulterers;
they are like a heated oven
whose baker ceases to stir the fire,
from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened.
 5 On the day of j our king, the princes
became sick with the heat of wine;
he stretched out his hand with mockers.
 6 For with hearts like an oven k they approach their intrigue;
all night their anger smolders;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
 7 All of them are hot as an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All l their kings m have fallen,
and none of them calls upon me.
 8  Ephraim n mixes himself with the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
 9  o Strangers devour his strength,
and p he knows it not;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
and q he knows it not.
 10  r The pride of Israel testifies to his face; ▼
▼ Or in his presence

t yet they do not return to the  Lord their God,
nor seek him, for all this.
 11  Ephraim is like a dove,
u silly and without sense,
calling to v Egypt, going to w Assyria.
 12 As they go x I will spread over them my net;
I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;
y I will discipline them z according to the report made to their congregation.
 13  aa Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
ab I would redeem them,
but ac they speak lies against me.
 14  ad They do not cry to me from the heart,
but ae they wail upon their beds;
for grain and wine they gash themselves;
they rebel against me.
 15 Although af I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise evil against me.
 16 They ag return, but not upward; ▼
▼ Or to the Most High

they are ai like a treacherous bow;
their princes shall fall by the sword
because of aj the insolence of their tongue.
This shall be their derision ak in the land of Egypt.
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