Hosea, 10

¹ “Israel is a degenerate^*1 vine yielding its fruit. The more his fruit increases, the more he multiplies his altars; The better his land produces, the more splendid his sacred pillars.

² Their heart is hypocritical;^*1 Now they will be found guilty. There is one who will break their altars and destroy their pillars.

³ Now they will say, ‘We have no king, for we have not feared Jehovah. And what could a king do for us?’

⁴ They speak empty words, make false oaths, and make covenants; So the judgment that springs up is like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

⁵ The residents of Sa·marʹi·a will fear for the calf idol of Beth-aʹven. Its people will mourn over it, As will its foreign-god priests who rejoiced over it and its glory, For it will go away from them into exile.

⁶ It will be brought to As·syrʹi·a as a gift to a great king. Eʹphra·im will be put to shame, And Israel will be ashamed because of the advice it followed.

⁷ Sa·marʹi·a and her king will certainly be done away with,^*1 Like a snapped-off twig on the surface of waters.

⁸ The high places of Beth-aʹven, the sin of Israel, will be annihilated. Thorns and thistles will grow on their altars. People will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us!’ And to the hills, ‘Fall over us!’

⁹ From the days of Gibʹe·ah you have sinned, O Israel. There they have persisted. War did not overtake^*1 the sons of unrighteousness in Gibʹe·ah.

¹⁰ I will also discipline them when I please. And peoples will be gathered against them, When their two errors are harnessed on them.^*1

¹¹ Eʹphra·im was a trained heifer that loved to thresh, So I spared her fair neck. Now I will make someone ride^*1 Eʹphra·im. Judah will plow; Jacob will harrow for him.

¹² Sow seed for yourselves in righteousness and reap loyal love. Plow for yourselves arable land While there is time to search for Jehovah, Until he comes and instructs you in righteousness.

¹³ But you have plowed wickedness, You have reaped unrighteousness, And you have eaten the fruitage of deception; For you have trusted in your own way, In the multitude of your warriors.

¹⁴ An uproar will rise against your people, And your fortified cities will all be devastated, Like the devastation by Shalʹman of the house of Arʹbel, In the day of battle when mothers were dashed to pieces alongside their children.

¹⁵ This is what will be done to you, O Bethʹel, because of your utter wickedness. At dawn the king of Israel will surely be done away with.”^*1