Hosea
7:1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was
discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood;
and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
7:2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their
wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before
my face.
7:3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with
their lies.
7:4 They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth
from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
7:5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of
wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
7:6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in
wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a
flaming fire.
7:7 They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their
kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.
7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not
turned.
7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray
hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
7:10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return
to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.
7:11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt,
they go to Assyria.
7:12 When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them
down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their
congregation hath heard.
7:13 Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them!
because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them,
yet they have spoken lies against me.
7:14 And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon
their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel
against me.
7:15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine
mischief against me.
7:16 They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow:
their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this
shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
