Hosea

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

O israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:

According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his LORD return unto him.

And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.