Hosea 8

¹Let there be a trumpet in thy throat like an eagle upon the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and have violated my law.

²They shall call upon me: O my God, we, Israel, know thee.

³Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴They have reigned, but not by me: they have been princes, and I knew not: of their silver, and their gold they have made idols to themselves, that they might perish.

⁵Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off, my wrath is kindled against them. How long will they be incapable of being cleansed?

⁶For itself also is the invention of Israel: a workman made it, and it is no god: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders’ webs.

⁷For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.

⁸Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations like an unclean vessel.

⁹For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers.

¹⁰But even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the princes.

¹¹Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin: altars are become to him unto sin.

¹²I shall write to him my manifold laws, which have been accounted as foreign.

¹³They shall offer victims, they shall sacrifice flesh, and shall eat it, and the Lord will not receive them: now will he remember their iniquity, and will visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

¹⁴And Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and hath built temples: and Juda hath built many fenced cities: and I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the houses thereof.