Hosea
8 “To your mouth*—a horn!*+ [One comes] like an eagle+ against the house of Jehovah, for the reason that they have overstepped my covenant,+ and against my law they have transgressed.+ 2 To me they keep crying, ‘O my God, we, Israel, have known you.’+
3 “Israel has cast off good.+ Let one who is an enemy pursue him.+ 4 They themselves have set up kings,+ but not because of me. They have set up princes, but I did not know [it]. With their silver and their gold they have made for themselves idols,+ to the end that they* may be cut off.+ 5 Your calf has been cast off,+ O Sa·marʹi·a. My anger has grown hot against them.+ How long will they be incapable of innocency?+ 6 For from Israel was even this.+ A mere craftsman made it,+ and it is not God;* because the calf of Sa·marʹi·a will become mere splinters.+
7 “For it is wind* that they keep sowing, and a storm wind is what they will reap.+ Nothing has standing grain.+ No sprout produces flour.+ Should any perhaps produce [it], strangers themselves will swallow it down.+
8 “Israel must be swallowed down.+ Now they must come to be among the nations,+ like a vessel in which there is no delight.+ 9 For they themselves have gone up to As·syrʹi·a,+ as a zebra isolated to itself.+ In Eʹphra·im’s case, they have hired lovers.+ 10 Also, although they keep hiring [them] among the nations,+ I shall now collect them together; and they will be a little while in severe pains+ because of the burden of king [and] princes.
11 “For Eʹphra·im has multiplied altars in order to sin.+ He has come to have altars in order to sin.+ 12 I proceeded to write for him many things of my law;+ just like something strange they have been accounted.+ 13 As my gift sacrifices they kept sacrificing flesh,+ and they kept eating what Jehovah himself took no pleasure in.+ Now he will remember their error and hold an accounting for their sins.+ To Egypt they themselves proceeded to return.+ 14 And Israel began forgetting his Maker+ and building temples;+ and Judah, for his part, multiplied fortified cities.+ And I shall certainly send fire into his cities and it must devour the dwelling towers of [each] one.”+