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Hosea

Idolatry and Its Consequences

8
Chapter 8
1 To your palate blow the trumpet like an eagle over the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my Torah. 2 They will cry out to me, "My God, we have known you, Israel." 3 Israel has cast off the good; the enemy will pursue him. 4 They made kings, but not from me; they appointed princes, but I did not know it. With their silver and their gold they made idols for themselves, so they would be cut off. 5 Your calf, Samaria—I have rejected it. My anger burns against them. How long will they be unable to be cleared? 6 For from Israel—an artisan made it. It is not God. The calf of Shimron will be shattered things. 7 For they sow the wind and reap its storm. There is none standing up to it; it will not make sprout flour. Perhaps it makes foreigners—they swallow it. 8 Israel is now swallowed up; they have become among the nations like a vessel in which no one delights. 9 For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey alone by himself. Ephraim has hired lovers. 10 Even though they give among the nations, now I will gather them, and they will begin to be relieved a little from the burden of the king and the officials. 11 For Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin; they have been altars for sin to him. 12 I wrote for him the great things of my Torah; they are regarded as a strange thing. 13 They sacrifice their offerings as flesh and eat them, but the LORD has not accepted them. Now he will remember their iniquity and visit their sin offerings; they will return to Egypt. 14 Israel forgot his Maker and built palaces, and Judah multiplied cities in distresses. I sent fire in his cities, and it devoured his palaces.